Walt's World

This was a quiet Mother’s Day weekend here in the off-season world of CB. With absolutely not one plan, my younger daughter and I existed in our own orbits in our quiet house - she was yearning for company other than mine but it seemed all her usual buddies were away.

Enter a random invite to see the new twin calves (!) at a working farm about 20 miles away with a couple kids defined best as mandatory cousins. My daughter reticently agrees to the Mother’s Day Farm Visit. And so we honor what arises and take the invite to the farm - opportunity abounds.

We arrive at the farm and the Farmer greets us, I move forward, take off my shades and introduce myself. He knows me but I don’t know him. He looks over my shoulder and knows my daughter by name.

The Farmer is Walt. It is Walt, the bus driver. This is the man that has safely delivered all of our children to school day after day, rain, shine, snow, sleet, blower powder days - he picks em up, knows em by name, makes eye contact with each of them and welcomes them on board.

He is actually not really a bus driver. Walt is a Farmer, a father, a husband, a brother, a conscientious land owner (in the tune of 600 plus acres- now in a conservation easement in perpetuity), a life-long resident of the valley, a firefighter.

He hosted us four moms and 5 kids generously through his property, let the kids feed the sheep, the calves, harass the farm dogs, play on the dilapidated tractors, and all the time, he shared stories and insight.

So lately it is impossible for me to write without bringing this stuff back to Ortho and in those moments in Walt’s World yesterday, I had some clarity around what defines people and how they define themselves and how they allow themselves to be defined. In the context of Ortho and treatment, this was an invitation and a reminder not only about how complex our systems are but that they exist and change over time and space. Hence the essence of a person has a depth that is infinite.

I have such gratitude that Ortho invites us to meet people in this moment exactly, just like I met Walt as a Farmer yesterday. These meetings are sacred because they are authentic and judgement free - meeting people in the now, totally present, and using a greeting density that meets them where they are in that actual moment.

I guess I got to thinking that the only way I knew Walt is in a context that barely defined who he actually was. And his incredible story within the context of this space and time, as a farmer in the Gunnison Valley, as a name-holder of the local ski hill and proud recipient of a life-time pass at that operation…is really just the beginning of his essence. It was a privilege to meet Walt (again) yesterday and be welcomed so genuinely into his world. And I realize now that I feel this sense of privilege each time I get to meet someone and they trust me to meet them, work with their systems and get the opportunity to appreciate their essence.