“Making hay when the sun shines”

Being an Idaho farm girl, I can completely understand where this comment came from.

We grew our own hay. So in the summer, when it was hot, the grass was tall and ready for harvest.

My dad would use a machine to swath the grass (cut it) and it would lay in rows to dry out in the hot sun.

A few days later, he would use a different machine called a bailer to form the loose hay into bales, tied with string.

We would then come along with a truck and haul the hay to the barn, and that’s where the hay would stay until winter to feed our animals.

The time between cutting the grass and picking up the bales of hay was an extremely anxious few days. If it rained on the bales of hay, they would become moldy and ruined.

Therefore, you “make hay when the sun shines” to avoid ruined hay.

It’s a hustle. A race to the finish. You put in long days until the work is done. Because you know that rain is coming. You keep one eye on the horizon and one eye on your job.

I remember us girls being exhausted, worn out, scratched up, sore, sunburned.

My dad would put in long hours at the police department and come home to put in long hours until the sun went down making hay.

My mom, who suffered from severe hay allergies, would drive the hay truck with Kleenex stuffed up her nose, her eyes swollen and red.

Nobody liked hay season and we were all miserable, but it’s just what we had to do in order to have food for our animals through the winter.

Twenty-five years later, I’m making hay while the sun shines.

Code Red won’t be around forever. I will get older, I might get bought out, the market could crash again, who knows.

I would like to think that nothing will ever happen to Code Red, but no one ever thinks “bad things” will happen to them.

So as I keep one eye on the horizon, I work tirelessly day and night.

I pretend like there is no tomorrow because we really don’t know what tomorrow brings.

I show up each day for my clients, create new Code Red programs to help heal and always treat people with kindness.

I wake up each day excited because that’s another chance to show people a better way to live.

Are you “making hay when the sun shines” when it comes to your health?

Or are you kicking the can down the road, and telling yourself, “someday I’ll get serious about my weight and health.”

Tomorrow is never promised, which means today is all we have.

Stop waiting for “someday” to take your life back.

Start TODAY.