Knee High By July
Genuine | June 12I live out in the country among the cornfields and farms. The title of this piece is a popular saying among the farmers growing corn in this region. They know that if their crop is “knee high by July” they are on track for a high-quality year.
I thought of this adage not only because I drive by the cornfields every day but also because my youngest son is about to have his first birthday. He is a firecracker baby, born on the 4th of July, my Yankee Doodle Dandy. I began to think of the analogy further when comparing what we as parents do to that of what we know of farmers and the process of bringing in a good crop. As he stands clutching my knees, wobbling and unsure of his next step, I chuckle at the prospect of his growing season. Even now, we are cultivating our next child due to come into the world.
Farmers nurture, develop and cultivate the ground making a good foundation for the seeds they plant, turning and prepping the soil, making conditions as perfect for their seeds as possible. Farmers place in the ground their seeds at a time they know they will be most beneficial with growing and surviving. They plant the seed in rich soil, water and care for the seedlings while they are in the early stages of growing. They pray that the seedlings stay healthy and that no outside conditions harm or hurt the seedlings. They watch anxiously as the weather and outside dangers come and go, hoping that they have made conditions such that their small plants can endure. They know that the stronger the roots become and the healthier the plants grow the better chance they have of a good yield on their investment.
They look across their fields with pride as they see the sea of green and a healthy and vigorous crop. Their pride continues when they come to the time of harvest when all of their hard work shows its bounty. This process begins again the next spring when they start to raise another crop and more children.
We as future parents try to lay the best foundation for our family where our children can grow in a most opportunistic setting. We have the same worries as the farmer about outside influences that may shape the growth of our children and their safety. The child’s mother tries her best to eat well and to nurture her unborn child, knowing that the care and effort she puts in now will make for the best of conditions and the best yield. Each time we have a prenatal test, or each time we spend at a doctor’s office, it is like the farmer watching the skies hoping no danger befalls his crop. We have an unspoken anxiousness that we carry over the life of the pregnancy. Hopefully, the hard work we have put into the early process will provide the best crop and will provide us the reward we yearn.
No matter the care and nurturing and planning we do as parents, sometimes things cannot turn out as we had hoped. Like an unknown hailstorm or a single lighting strike causing a fire, a horrific moment for a farmer, we as parents can sometimes befall a problem while bringing a new life into the world. I speak of having a child with special needs, and a child that for whatever reason does not benefit from the special care a parent has provided.
In 1965, my mother gave birth to a special little angel—a beautiful little girl, but a child with special needs. My little sister was born with Spina Bifida and Cerebral Palsy. The doctors at the time did everything they could for the little girl but there was little hope that she would have any semblance of a normal childhood and life. My mother was the Farmer watching her crop damaged and not growing properly, but she never gave up hope that the crop would come in and be a bountiful harvest. Many surgeries and hard times were ahead for the little girl. Many sacrifices were made, and times were most difficult for the family. The little girl’s father could not carry on the fight any longer, and he left the mother with two babies, sixteen months apart in age, one with a serious health problem. Suddenly, the mother was alone in her fight to make the family survive. Her crops were in danger. Fortunately, a new man came along and took a chance on the mother and her babies. He helped weed the crop helped water and feed the seedlings. He too took up the charge of making the effort to support the crops so they would survive and would later be rewarded at harvest time.
The doctors didn’t have much hope for the little girl as she underwent treatment for every ailment she had. Some doctors believed that the problems were even too many to list and to cure. They gave her life not much hope past the age of seven. The parents refused to allow the doctors to deter their efforts. They remained steadfast in their care for the little girl and protected her from the storms that threatened to end her life. Meanwhile, they had other children to care for, never once wavering in their efforts to bring in the best crop possible for each of them.
The years passed and the parents continued to fight, not wanting to succumb to the difficulties life threw at them. Some of their crops grew into strong and abundant harvests, going on to be successful and bearers of their own families. They have never given up the fight for their little girl. The years have proven difficult, and each time they are faced with a storm that might cause them to lose their crop, they fight the elements to give that seedling a chance to survive. That little angel has never really stopped growing, but she has never been able to be harvested.
My little sister turned 40 years old this month. She continues to struggle to live each day, suffering from kidney failure and having to undergo dialysis every other day. Her mother, in an attempt to save the crop, donated her own kidney, which was heroic, but another storm caused the transplant to fail. This too is a tempest that will only be a setback but not dampen the spirits as they continue to fight to provide the best life offers.
The growing season is with us again, and new storms will surely come to the crops, but if we provide the best conditions possible, if we give the crops the best chance of survival, somehow they continue to grow into a wonderful harvest at the end. As we continue growing our crops, we are also teaching the next generation of farmers. My parents have never given up on the one crop where perhaps there is no hope of a yield, but I for one think that their efforts have produced the best of all crops. They have taught my brothers and me how to farm.
Here is hoping your harvest is bountiful and your growing season is filled with rain and sunshine making your crop strong and healthy.
[Reprinted from Genuine Moments at The Philosophical Mother - July 2005**]
**Since this article was published, my sister has celebrated her 41st birthday on June 10, and my “youngest” referred to in the article is no longer the youngest, and my now youngest will be a 1 year old in August!
Gave me the shivers.
God, what a lovely post.
What a wonderful post. I absolutely adore you. -hugs-
That was wonderful. Ok, now I am leaving. First MIM, now you. Can’t read on today. But thank you for sharing that, it was a beautiful piece.
People with cerebral palsy is not to be taken lightly man. Someone with moderate spastic quadriplegia can sit quite well, lift himself into a wheelchair independently, may be able to walk short distances with a walker, and has enough hand function to feed himself. See Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy