A Tale of Struggle

Tiktilaok! Tiktilaok!

The crackling sound of the roosters filled the silence of the dawn indicating a new morning. A man yawned and sighed after, "another tiring day it is." He got up from bed and starts preparing to earn for a living. He took a quick bath, wears his usual faded denim pants topped with his favorite sweater. With the necessary tools on his backpack, he then went out of the house and took a quick glance on the sky as he stepped on the muddy field of a farm. That sums up the usual morning routine of a 56 year-old farmer I know. He has been into this work for many years. This has become his source of income to raise his family.

Every morning, just before the sun rises, he'll be out to work on a muddy farm, plowing the field from dawn to dusk. Under the hot blistering sun, the soft, cold mud covers the soles of his feet. The heaviness of the load he pushed is nothing compared to the despair of unfinished work and empty stomach. This made him push, push the load of a plow, push the little of what was remained on his strength and push his family's needs. Regardless of the sticky mud swallowing his bare feet, he never sinks. Continuing pushing forward while he still can.

Rain or shine, he still needs to go on. The outstretching field is somewhat extending just like the never ending needs of his family he needs to provide. This is the nature of being a farmer, hard, tiring, consuming, never ending.

Despite the pain he feels from head to toe due to every tiring day, despite his lack of sleep, despite the struggle of plowing hectares of land and despite the numerous beads of sweat poured from his body, he still manages to work hard and enjoy what he does to earn and support the endless needs of his family.