A close friend of mine had a tragedy this summer when one of his livestock barns filled with 1,000 fresh bales of hay in the loft burned to the ground in twenty-two minutes. He barely got from the barn where he was feeding horses at the top of the hill down to the engulfed structure to see the end. The horses there were already in the pasture; all the chickens had escaped.
It was weeks before he could clean up all the scrapped metal fixtures, put his hands on the decomposed melted equipment, push it all to the side and begin to think about the next steps - knowing that fall in the mountains was already starting to change the color of the leaves, that the animals had to have their home before snow fell.
This was the barn that his mom and dad built. It was function and “form” — the foundation of their livelihood. Every morning when he woke, the image he saw was a soot pile. Every evening, a glimmer of panic another fire would happen to another building.
He began to plan the new barn, going deep into his property to mark the trees for felling and planking to build the new barn. He started marking the ground for the new posts, using the vision in his mind about how he wanted his future to look in order to define his present, using what he had learned in his past.
One or two people would come now and then to help, but he got started with ingenuity to figure out how to make a post plumb with only two hands and some of the remaining farm equipment.
The vision starts to take shape - and then neighbors arrive. Just like Americans used to do, neighbor helping neighbor. Investment in the welfare of your own community, seeing how you could help. Making things better, learning what to do even if you’d never done it before.
Problems aren’t always about money. Time. Helping hands. Brain-power to strategize. A four-wheeler buddy to mark the best hemlock and pine. Someone bringing an Amish father to use his family’s hands and experience.
The Amish started helping, making improvements in their own way and using their own language. If you’ve never built a barn with Amish men, it’s quite something to see a young man three stories off the ground walking on a two inch header as they install the rafters.
These particular neighbors don’t usually interact with a lot of folks, don’t do things the same way; they dress differently than most and speak in different tongues - yet their contribution for someone they didn’t know raised half a barn in astonishing speed and accuracy yesterday.
Know anyone in your neighborhood, in your community, that doesn’t look like you or dress like you? Ever talk with them to see if you have something in common besides the streets on which you live? Have you needed help and think you know the type of person you need?
Thinking you have all the answers or know the “right” people that can help is barn burning. Turn to each other and offer a hand to be a barn building community. Listen to new perspectives. Become invested in something — it could mean more than anything you’ve previously known.
After all, it’s a shame when you’re not invested in anything; it leads to closed doors and people who believe “knowing it all” gives them a right to scream in support of nothing. You know the next line - if you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.
Help your community, get to know your neighbors again. Build a new vision together, dreaming of what’s possible instead of complaining about what is.
Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and you might just learn something new to add to your “great-full” list.
Heather M. Hilliard is Principal and Chief Strategist for R. Roan Enterprises, LLC, a professional services consulting firm supporting businesses in pointed areas of expertise as well as with individuals for targeted projects or career development. For more articles like these, visit her posts on LinkedIn or on G+.
#seizetheday, #makeithappen
