Our Rural Roots

Meredith Bernard, Contributor

Hi. My name is Meredith, and I have a confession to make: I’m addicted to hats (and coffee and dry shampoo, but for the sake of this article, I’m sticking to hats).

At this point, I’m sure I have more hats than my farmer husband, but I’m too afraid to count.

They make my morning routine faster and less worrisome, and cover a multitude of hair sins all at the same time. The irony is that as much as these literal hats make my life easier, all the figurative ones do anything but.

You might not wear a ball cap most every day as I do, but I bet you wear some others.

Maybe it’s mom or dad or grandparent. Maybe it’s boss or employee or both. Maybe it’s volunteer or caregiver. Maybe it’s any one of any number of
other titles; and, maybe, most likely, it’s a combination
of several.

With so many “hats” we all wear, life can get overwhelming and suffocating under their shadow.

The biggest lesson I’m learning is that trying to balance all the titles I own is more about embracing the imbalance. It’s taken awhile for me to realize it’s OK not to be perfect, because it’s impossible to be all things to all people all at the same time.

The reality is that one day, my family will get more attention, the next day it may be my business, and the next day it may be the farm.

Feeling guilty about not getting it all done is not helpful or worth it. The best we can do is the best we can do, and sometimes, I think we need that reminder.

So, I’ll keep putting on one hat a time in the morning and do my best to focus on one role at a time in life, too. The sum of well-done in parts is a well-done whole. You can bet your best hat on that..

Meredith Bernard writes about farm life on her website (thisfarmwife.com) and is also active on Twitter (@thisfarmwife).

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