A time to move on

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1, NLT

Well, friends and family, it's been nearly a month since I've taken time to blog. But I've done a lot of reflecting, and during that month, I feel like I've experienced a lot of personal change and growth. Earlier this week, I observed the first anniversary of my activities and events director position at the AAA, and I'd say overall, the past year and especially the past month, I've learned more about myself and changed more than I have the 36 years previous.

Yes, for everything there is a season. There is a time. And there is a reason. I firmly believe these statements. Let me explain a little about some of the changes I'm experiencing.

For everything there is a season. I feel like I'm maturing. I don't know if that is the right term. I'm either maturing or hibernating. I'm just not the fun-loving social person I used to be. It's not that I don't want to go out and have fun. It's just that I don't want to go to the work of dressing up and re-doing my hair and makeup. At the end of the work day at a show, I am exhausted. I want to eat, take a shower and get sleep so I can get up early, get ice for the coolers and make sure everyone is taken care of the next day. Take for example the NJAS. Last year, I was out every night in Perry. I had fun, fun, fun. This year, in Denver for the same event, I went out one night, had one adult beverage, and was back to the hotel room before 11. This is totally not the same old me. I don't feel bad about my decisions. I just feel awkward. As my good friend, Matt Caldwell, who is actually younger than me says, "It sure is fun watching you kids grow up."

For everything there is a time. This time of year is traditionally one of my favorites for two reasons--it's time for LEAD, our annual youth leadership conference, and it's state fair season. Well, this is the first time in 11 years I won't be attending LEAD. Yes, it is hard. But, I'm no longer in the PR department, and I'm no longer an advisor, so I'm not really needed. I always loved LEAD because it was the one junior Angus event where kids got to be kids--they didn't have cattle to take care of or contests to prep for. They got to interact with one another and learn some really cool life lessons and experience a new region of the country. Most juniors will travel to LEAD today or tomorrow, and it is really heavy on me that I'm not going.

But, there is a reason for everything too. One of my good friends, and a former NJAA director, who I got to advise is getting married this weekend in Manhattan, so I do get to attend that wedding and help Jeana and Dustin celebrate their new life together--an opportunity I'd have to miss if I was at LEAD. See, everything happens for a reason. State fair season--that's a whole other blog!

You know the third chapter of Ecclesiastes talks about times for so many different things to happen. I have really embraced that the past few weeks, and while I haven't been writing for you all, I've been reading and re-reading that scripture. It, along with Beth Moore's book, "So Long Insecurity, You've been a bad Friend to Us" has made me realized these changes are part of life. It is ok to change. There is a time to grow up. There is a time to not worry about popularity. There is a time to stand up for what you believe is right.

You can go home

During the course of my vacation last week, I made a couple of Angus stops. Some people might find this odd since I was on vacation. But, I truly consider many of the Angus breeders and Association members family. As a matter of fact, I see many of them more often than my family so last Saturday on my way across Nebraska's Hwy 2, I made a stop at the Kraye Angus Production Sale in Mullen. Now, mind you my family and moved to Cox Hereford Ranch in 1978 and moved away in 1983, when I wasn't quite a decade old. But I learned alot about ranch life in those old Sandhills, which is some of the best cow country on Earth.

So I was perusing through the bulls at Kraye's when I ran into John, the second of the third generation on this family operation. He looked at me, and just started shaking my hand, and said, "Shelia Stannard, how are you? I can't believe you drove all the way from St. Joe to come to our sale!" Well, I explained to him that I was passing through town on my way to the Panhandle to see family and I couldn't forget their sale day. He mentioned that he was honored I was there from "the Association." And, I looked at John, and smiled, thinking to myself, I wasn't really on official business, and I could never forget where I came from.

Well, his dad, "whispering" Fred, didn't think one thing about me being from the American Angus Association. When I walked into that sale barn, Freddie put his arm around me and I was that 9-year-old third grader again. He led me around from rancher to rancher, exclaiming, "I bet you don't recognize this old gal," only like Freddie could! Very few people did recognize me, but hello, I wasn't wearing my bell-bottom Wranglers, my ball cap pulled down tightly over my ears and my leather belt with "SHELIA" engraved in the back with a little hereford belt buckle like I did so many years ago! I would hope I have straighter teeth, straighter hair, and am not quite so goofy looking! I got to talk to the Coxes, the ranch we lived on and worked for. And I got to see most of the Kraye family. It was just like being "home".

Oh, and why do they call him "whispering" Fred? Well, they say if you walk into the barns in Denver, and all the cattle are laying down with the fans blowing, Freddie can say "hello, friend," to the first person he sees, and it will be so loud all the cattle in the barn will stand up. He's been that way since I first met him in his feed store back in the late 1970s and he'll always be that way. It's nice to know that you can go home.