It was a beautiful fall weekend in Missouri and we got to enjoy a precious family tradition with the Shinn side of our family. For many, many generations the Shinn family has grown sugar cane and made molasses together in the fall. Family, neighbors, and friends come and join in on the work and fun! Now they use a tractor, but at one time the sugar cane mill was even powered by horses! After a few years of a subpar sugar cane crop, they took a break from planting for several years. But this year my Father-in-law decided we needed to get it going again. So he, my brother-in-law, and my husband got busy planting and planning so that this dear tradition wouldn’t be forgotten.
I am so thankful for the work and effort that they were willing to put into it, because family traditions all too often become a casualty in the chaos of our busy lives. Tradition isn’t just something we do…tradition is a way to honor our history, a way to strengthen the common threads that bind us, a way to connect the young generations with the new generations and pass on our heritage in a palpable way. Traditions are gifts from the assiduous hands of those who deliver love over and over again to their family or friends despite the passing years, the changing lives, and sometimes even distance that pulls us so far from one another. It would be easier to let them go sometimes, wouldn’t it? To look at our calendars and decide we just can’t make it fit or that it’s just too much work? I’ve certainly been guilty of this in my life! But when we do make it fit, when we can do the hard work… it’s never a regrettable effort!
The day starts early and the work is long…but while the mill turns and the fire burns – there is laughter, there is home cooked food and stories to be told, Mamaw is hollering for the men to “git more fahr!”, Daddo is using duct tape to fix something, there are children running about the farm gathering up memories and sticktights, and if you are still…you can see the sacred beauty that occurs when family and work are combined. I am thankful to have both been raised in a family that has beautiful traditions, and to have married into one. If you have this in your life, don’t let it go…and if you don’t, then make a new beginning and give the gift of tradition to your loved ones this year!
