The first time Simple Promise Farms entered my life was not at the farm or at a farmers market, but instead an AA meeting in Austin.
I was newly sober for the first time and a scraggly looking hippie was walking to the bus stop by Northland. Great, an opportunity to be of service I thought, with little sense of what that interaction was going to do for me years later. I gave him a ride home that day and as the miles ticked away he opened my mind to what was taking place out in Elgin, TX. A farm committed to helping everyone find true purpose and to grow into the beautiful souls they were always supposed to be. This was 2020, a few months after the initial wave of COVID brought about so much despair, the shot of hope and love was much needed. He mentioned they would be at Mueller Farmers Market that Sunday and I excitedly forced my future wife and her mother to tag along. I was a pitch man for an idea that just felt right in my heart from day one. When I brought my vibrant veggies up to the man at the stand I was blown away to learn he was currently in treatment. Simple Promise was continually redefining my concepts of treatment, sobriety and purpose. When I learned you could volunteer at the farm my heart exploded.
The next weekend I met Tori and Brandon, the owners and more importantly operators. Not some VC company running a company from three states away but people that cared, people who felt and people getting their hands dirty.
Unfortunately my excitement faded, I got more consumed by material things and what I thought I should be in this world. I had lost the message of simplicity and the beauty of nature and eventually I was anything but simple and beautiful. Kicked out of my home, unemployable, lost in this world.
When eventually the world had beaten me down far enough and I ended up back in treatment one thing that stuck on my mind was the farm and the stamp it put on me in such a short time. Life wasn’t supposed to be experienced through a never ending feed, it was to be experienced with your fingers in the ground, growing something from seemingly nothing and providing for others.
I landed my first job out of, God willing, my final treatment center and one of the first things I did was badger our executive director that we have to take the clients to Simple Promise Farms. Eventually he relented and the magic that happened, and continues to happen, when men and women who think they are worthless, that the world is dark and evil experience growth, love and nature was incredible. It quickly became the highlight of everyone’s stay. You saw folks that barely talk begin to emerge, begin to love others and eventually themselves, much aligned with my own experience.
When the day came that Simple Promise Farms was looking for a board member it was as if in my previous life someone posted a job with a starting salary of $5 million dollars. I wasn’t even sure if I should apply for such a position. When I talked with Brandon that day he outlined his vision for the board and its potential for reach, he spoke with authenticity, passion and at the time I thought some delusion. As a board member for two years now I’m blown away by what has been accomplished and what the next few years look like. Brandon’s ‘delusion’ is not that at all, it’s inspiration and a driving force to bring to others what it brought to me and so many others. Life.
Right now the farm is my happy place. A place I can go to tap into reality, to gain clarity on what’s actually important and what life is meant to be. I’m honored to be able to share it with men and women in recovery, with my friends, with my incredible wife and my beautiful baby. All of which wouldn’t be possible without Simple Promise Farms.
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