Gratitude and Thanksgiving: What a beautiful fall! It’s been a few years since I remember having the fall colors or the length of beautiful weather we’ve had this year. Grateful also for a little rain this weekend.

This past week was our Extension Fall Conference where we got to spend time with colleagues across the state. I walked in the door and was kindly told about Paul Hay’s (Extension Educator emeritus in Gage County) unexpected passing. It was a shock for many of us that day, yet also so fitting that we could be together with Extension colleagues to share memories with each other through laughter and tears. I’m so grateful for the talented new colleagues who’ve joined us. Throughout the conference we kept stressing how much Extension is like a big family. I’m grateful for that as well. It’s genuinely hard to be an Extension professional and not care about people. As I sat today at Paul’s funeral with numerous pews full of current and former Extension employees, I found myself once again grateful for my Extension family. I was also grateful to celebrate a life well lived. Anyone who was fortunate to know Paul knew he was legendary and such a gift to us all!

I’m also grateful for all the farm families I’ve had the opportunity to serve and the relationships built through the years with them and ag business professionals. So often this past year when I’ve been frustrated with work things, one thing that helped me stay encouraged was gratitude to work with great colleagues and serve great people!

I think many of us are grateful for the end of this growing season! During harvest I was telling everyone that “every field harvested is one field closer to being done with the end of this year!” Perhaps that was a bad attitude to have; I think it’s honestly where many of us were. I’ve never experienced anything like this past year, nor honestly, been so wrong about crops in my life (regarding how long the drought-stressed corn survived vs. me thinking it should have died). But I learned a lot and thank you for being patient and gracious with me in this journey.

This year has most likely held highs and lows for all of us. Whether we’re currently on the mountain top or valley in life, we have so much for which to be grateful! Gratitude can produce joy even when we don’t feel very joyful. I can honestly say there’s times this year when I didn’t feel joyful and had to really dig deep to choose gratitude and joy. But choosing gratitude can allow us to find joy in everyday moments and also share joy with others. I think joy is something we all could use more of!

So, may we experience more joy in the everyday moments as we intentionally seek to live with gratitude. And, may we extend this joy via kindness, grace, compassion to others around us. As I was reminded again today that life is so short, may we also seek to live each day to the fullest. May we tell people how they’ve impacted us for good and thank them. May we tell people how much we care about them. Wishing everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Food Preparation Tips and Resources: https://food.unl.edu/article/thanksgiving-central.

So You’ve Inherited a Farm…Now What? Reminder of this upcoming workshop November 30^th from 1-4 p.m. at Cornerstone Bank (529 Lincoln Ave.) in York (Register at 402-362-5508). This workshop will cover Nebraska land industry topics for farms and ranches. Those include evaluating current trends in land values and cash rents, strategies for successful land transitions, lease provisions, legal considerations and managing communication and expectations among family members. Creating and adjusting estate plans will also be covered. The program is free to attend, and refreshments will be provided. Pre-registration is requested by one day prior to the workshop.

Successful Farming Workshop Nov. 30 from 9-11:30 a.m. via livestream link or in person at the Extension Office in Lincoln. Speakers include Brad Lubben with a farm bill update and Jeff Peterson on grain marketing. More info. at: https://lancaster.unl.edu/ag/successfulfarmerseries