Gratitude: Fall Week #5 – 11/25/25

Sitting on the phone disputing fraud charges is not a great place from which to write about gratitude. But then again perhaps it is. 

I have long since felt that our culture creates many social spaces in the form of acceptance, where complaining is culturally okay. However, sharing our gratitude is given less social space.

I wish there was more space for sharing gratitude. So I’m not going to be shy, especially this Thanksgiving week where we are socially allowed to be thankful out loud!  

I am so grateful I get to farm. I absolutely love being a farmer. I can’t imagine doing anything else that would fulfill me the way it does. 

I love that I have a job where my body is necessary for the work. Moving my body feels good and it is something I need for my mental health. Nothing like the cold weather shift to office work to bring my love of outdoor work into clear focus!  Does my body hurt some days? Absolutely. As I age, certainly the care I need to take to keep my body able to do this work increases. Certain persistent pains stick with me and I learn to work through them. Despite this, I am overall still incredibly healthy and strong and love moving my body through the fields. 

I am also grateful to work with the seasons and the sun. During these dark days, my work load is much lighter. The number of things and people I am responsible for shrinks and mostly my work days become about keeping myself of task while working solo. Fast forward to the transition of spring, and my outdoor work load ramps up along with the lengthening days. And by the time we hit the solstice, where it seems everywhere I look green things are exploding, I can scarcely find a free moment – the demands of the fields in early summer so intense. Being tied to this pattern is a gift. Our society is so disconnected from the natural systems that sustain us, but I am literally connected to the sun through my work – following its flow. 

And the food! Both getting to grow it and eat it are such gifts. Every spring when I begin seeding, I marvel at all the tiny seeds and the knowledge of what they will grow into. Remarkable. Hundreds of dinner plates in the palm of my hand. I have a scientific understanding of how that seed turns into something that grows and sustains us…. but there still is some magic in it for me. It’s still something that awes me.

And well I don’t even have words for how cool it feels to feed all of you! Also not a bad side perk to have all these veggies available to me personally all the time to make whatever I want is also pretty fantastic. I just walk out of my house and into the shed and all the veggies a girl could dream of are there. (well except maybe avocados. gosh I wish we could grow those!)

I love the people I get to work with – so passionate! 

And lastly, I love the little delights. Ross Gay would have no problem writing multiple books on my farm. There is always an unknown insect, a gorgeous butterfly, a stem with an unexpected red hue, a bird call, a smell on the breeze, or delightful way the light hits the underside of a leaf, or  drizzle on my cheek. It all makes me feel so alive. So enveloped in natural beauty. 

Thank you for making this all possible. 

Safe travels and happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely, 
Farmer Cassie