It’s Harvest Time!
How Farmers and Patients Connect
As a native rural Iowan, I know that harvest time is much more than a season of thanksgiving. Combines, tractors, and wagons scour every square foot of corn and bean fields throughout the state. Gathering, piling, and transporting grain from sunup to sundown until the last acre is cleared.
When the farmers finally rest, they celebrate in gratitude for the crop’s productivity, for sustaining the family’s livelihood. Yet, the celebration acknowledges more. It recognizes the culmination of their dedication and resilience throughout the long growing cycle. The harvest’s outcome gives pause to their overall commitment and the lessons therein.
As a physical therapist, I believe that the farmer and the physical therapy patient travel different paths, yet derive similar takeaways. While the farmer nourishes the growth cycle of their seeds, the patient nourishes the natural healing cycle of their injury or ailment. Let’s discuss how these two seemingly unrelated paths intersect, how the farmer and the patient have space for conversation and connection.
Following are five takeaways, applicable to both the farmer and the patient.
1. First Step Matters Most: Every farmer knows that properly planting the seeds sets their entire future in motion. Similarly, the patient respects the first phase of healing, the tissue’s need for protection and rest. For both the farmer and the patient, any misstep at the get-go delays progress and potentially dampens their success.
2. Bumpy Roads: Both the farmer and the patient must traverse a bumpy road. Periods of too much or too little rain may inhibit the farmer’s crops, while infection or excessive pain may interrupt the patient’s healing process. For both the farmer and the patient, bumps along the way can either temporarily slow them down or lead to irreversible damage.
3. Cooperation with Life Force: Year after year, the farmer diligently does their part in coordination with the seed’s Life Force. Likewise, the patient acknowledges that this same Force directs the healing of their tissues. For both the farmer and the patient, the Life Force is the primary mover, and they have agreed to cooperate with its game plan.
4. Support System Required: Farming is known to be a family affair, every member contributing in their own way, every member taking ownership. Undoubtedly, the patient also requires assistance for personal care, household chores, transportation, and other tasks. For both the farmer and the patient, the path is more feasible when others are available and supportive.
5. Embrace the Physical: Even though farmers now have high-tech machinery, they move, bend, and lift throughout their regular day. In the same way, patients must stretch, strengthen, and relearn movement patterns. For both the farmer and the patient, physical work must be embraced to achieve their goals.
At the end of their paths, the farmer and the patient sit together at their harvest table and share as banded comrades. Lessons learned reveal unexpected intersections which now connect them, potentially forming lasting relationships and extended families. Two very different paths find common points of reflection and learning.
For this reason, all harvest tables must make room for diverse paths, diverse circumstances, and diverse cultures. Mannerisms and appearance will vary as well as language and values. Conversations may be guarded at first but soon, as people lean in and really listen, the intersections are discovered and mutual takeaways become evident. Then, the connection begins.
When tables only welcome like-minded individuals, the conversation becomes lopsided and stale. Since all guests have traveled the same path, without experiencing distinct points of intersection, takeaways are just old news and learning is scarce. In these cases, comfortable familiarity is high, however ironically connection is often lacking.
During this harvest season, allow your celebration to be rich and colorful with new, surprising conversations and connections. Learn how very diverse paths crisscross, exchange, and mix-and-mingle. Learn how you and so-called strangers can make different life choices yet continue to meet, again and again, at the table in communion.
My campaign - “Be Aware and Power Up!” – speaks to the importance of recognizing how your mind and spirit influence your body’s healing … and then empowering you to reach outrageous, adventurous physical goals. Connecting with other living organisms - humans, animals, plants and other nature - is a spiritual opportunity. And anything spiritual bolsters your healing potential. So, connections heal!