The Flower Farm in Late July
How can it be possible to be in the deepest of creative ruts while still managing to put out the best work you have ever done? I think there is a lot of pressure built up in and around us artists to create work that is even better than the last. Must we amount to more than we did before? This Ted Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert on creative geniuses will always stick with me. There are so many wonderful points to it, one being that our creativity was once thought to not belong to us but to a little figment, a “genius” if you will, that brought us ideas and whispered them in our ears so that we would not have to bear the burden of our success fully or, more importantly, our failure. The other part, though, is when she talks about wondering if she will ever amount to her most famous work, Eat Pray Love, again. Will she ever make something better, more successful, than that? Will she be okay living with the fact that she probably won’t?
Sometimes I wonder what my best creative work will be, if it has already happened. More often than not, when I consider it that way, I feel overwhelmed and defeated. Perhaps this is all I will amount to. Perhaps all of the time, money, and effort I put into growing my online following will remain at this stagnant point. Is it even worth doing?
But then I find myself out in the flowers, just as I did last night, taking photographs and videos and having a merry time. It is moments like these that keep me creating, capturing the natural beauty around us and not feeling pressured to do so. We were simply having fun together as a family. I was creating for myself and not anyone else.
The farm is bursting with blooms right now. Sometimes I forget that I do not always keep everyone updated on our big business changes. We have a big announcement coming up in the next few days, but for now, I think it is imperative to tell you about how the farm operates now. Over the past two years, since Kyle and I married and we had little baby Dean, Jill (my mom) has mainly taken over the farm. She has been growing flowers all on her own and managing the field, with help from my dad when he is home from work. She’s doing a fantastic job. It was difficult to help during my pregnancy and now with a baby. I am sure one day I will rejoin her to labor in the rows, but I think it has been a wonderful transfer of creativity.
Ever since we partnered up together to start this business, we have worked best when we have our individual roles and bring them together to create something magical. For me, writing has always been at the top of my list of what I wanted to do. It has not always paid well - ha! But finally, after so many years of trying and trying, it became my full time job (with a salary!) two years ago. So I dove head first into that.
My mom, on the other hand, wanted to move away from vegetables that were not selling well and into flowers that our customers seemed to thoroughly love. Our printer that she made our various handmade goods on went kaput around the same time, and it was the perfect timing to make a big decision. Handmade goods or farming? Well, farming won out this time. So that is where we are, and they compliment each other rather well.
The flower farm has looked the best it ever has! Jill has done a fantastic job of managing weeds, much better than I ever did, but I blame that on the fact that the flowers aren’t harvested as quickly as vegetables… right?! Just kidding. I blame it on children! Ha!
Zinnias, cosmos, dahlias, sunflowers, snapdragons, celosia, gomphrena, marigolds, calendula, lavender, and so much more is in full bloom. It feels like it took forever for everything to mature this summer, but we are thankful the time has finally come for the colorful flowers to be enjoyed. I feel a bit strange having barely been out at the farm and in the field to see it all. The weather has changed and the heat has let up for a few days, so I hope to head back out and gather more photographs while I can.
Thank you for reading my little rambling thoughts on creativity and business. I cannot wait to share our new project with you soon!
You can stop out to visit the farm, now, too! We are open every Saturday from 9AM-12PM while the season lasts. Click here to get directions to our farm.
xoxo Kayla
