"I woke up sweat-drenched from nightmares. It seemed like everything I used to count on--strength, discipline, toughness--had been stripped away.
Except for Michele and her love for me, her patience. she encouraged me to go back to school. It was slow going because of my TBI-related cognitive impairments, but I got a business degree. I found work with a healthcare staffing firm. It didn't take long to see an office job wasn't for me. I was still riddled with anxiety. Sometimes I'd think about that promise I'd made to the Lord lying in the street in Iraq. Would I ever be able to make good on it? Would it have been better if I had not made it back? No, no, I couldn't think like that!
When my family offered me a small plot of land on the old farm in Webster, my first instinct was to say no. The tedium, the isolation, the labor in the fields...hadn't I spent all these years trying to get away from the farm? Michele convinced me to give it a try. 'Farming's in your blood,' she said. 'Maybe this is what you need.'
I decided to go with what I knew best--blueberries. Researching organic farming methods, figuring out the right plants and soil mix, got my brain in gear like nothing else. A great group called the Farmer-Veteran Coalition helped me buy my first bushes. I used my disability pay to get an irrigation system.
Then came the morning I went out onto my little patch of land to start planting. I got down on my knees, dug my hands into the dirt. The earthy smell of it brought a rush of memories. When I was little I used to love plunging deep into the rows of bushes where no one could see me. It was like being in my own blueberry forest, so beautiful and peaceful it was almost holy. There's no hurry here, I thought. The only sound was birds chirping. No noise, no pressure, no worries. Maybe for the first time since I'd been wounded, my heart and mind stopped racing. That calm didn't leave me all day. Finally I stood and surveyed the neat rows of blueberry bushes I'd planted. Tiring work, but so satisfying to have something to show for it.
Michele helped during her off hours, but mostly I worked the field alone. One by one other veterans started to come out and join us. Then they brought along other vet buddies. We had different post-combat issues, but they all seemed to work themselves out on the farm. My coordination and balance improved and I go rid of my cane. My thinking and memory sharpened, my anxiety subsided. Working together helped us feel confortable around other people again.
Even the crowds at the mall no longer fazed me, which was why I was there that day when the young homeless vet asked for left overs. All the way home, I couldn't get him out of my mind. 'I wish I knew how to help guys like him,' I told Michele. 'more than a handout...'
'You'll find a way,' she said.
If only he could work on a farm like ours,' I said, 'he'd get back on track.'
That's when it came to me. What if I expanded our farm, made it a place where disabled veterans could work and heal and reintegrate into civilian life? I made tons of phone calls trying to find a way to turn my idea into reality. Someone put me in touch with Work Vessels for Veterans, a group that gives returning vets start-up tools for new careers. In my case, that was eight acres of farmland near Jacksonville, where there are large numbers of returning military.
Things took off from there. Veterans Farm is thriving. There's a fellowship program so disabled vets can earn a living while they learn to run an organic farm. At the end, they get seed money to start their own farms. We grow fruit and vegetables, raise tiapia and chickens and keep bees. Our biggest crop is blueberries. We sell them at farmers markets as Red, White and Blueberries.
That young man from the mall? I never saw him again. I pray he finds his way. He helped me find mine. And if he ever needs work, I know a farm that can use his help, a place of promise fulfilled under the loving eye of the Lord."
This is the second post of VICTORY GARDEN. See yesterday's entry.
ADAM Burke's web page veteransfarm.com
The entire aritcle is found in MAY 2012 issure of GUIDEPOSTS on pags. 52-55
Be sure to check out their web sight for more resources for returning vets at guideposts.org/vethelp
Check out GUIDEPOSTS for other miraculous stories of God's provisons at
http://www.guideposts.org/
If you've read and enjoyed my book, SO YOU PLAN TO MARRY A MAN, may I ask that you go on Amazon.com and make a comment to encourage others to also get the book. Thanks!
jowildflowers@gmail.com www.jean-oathout.blogspot.com
Tomorrow's post: ACCOUNTABILITY: A Hedge of Protection
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