by Digger Barr
gaiasgardens.guru/
I learned I was a visionary at 6 years old.
Not a visionary as in clairvoyance, although I wouldn’t rule that out as that did come into the picture later down the road.
This is the type of visionary that showed me how to solve a problem. If one were to look at the issue before them and picture what needed to happen to solve it, that could be an attribute of a visionary .
I think most people think in pictures so that would make most of us visionaries naturally.
A true visionary not only thinks in pictures, but they see problems before they arise.
They see solutions before there are problems and they see their way forward before any problem solutions scenarios have taken place.
This can be a developed skill especially if you start working those initial visionary skills.
Back in my childhood growing up in rural Arizona, we had a large barn.
We had been told not to play in the barn as there were dangers lurking in every corner.
My siblings and I were very good at creating even more situations.
Probably so we didn’t end up burning the barn down, my dad forbade my older brother and sister and myself from playing in the barn.
I was six, so even though I knew the rule, it didn’t matter. I followed my siblings everywhere.
So one summer afternoon while Dad was working in the trading post just down the hill and across from the barn, we snuck into the barn through a door away from his view.
It was a marvelous barn filled with hay and a loft up top.
It was from this loft there was a sheep fleece loading port. I don’t know what they are really called, but it was a large hanger for burlap bags that sheep fleeces were stuffed into.
I remember this well because they used to let me drop down into the tunnel shaped bag in order to pack the fleeces tighter. We called them gunny sacks.
A very fun job for a kid, but a dangerous set up when no bag was in place to catch you.
There were many dangers growing up in nowhere Arizona, the barn to us was just another place to explore.
Oblivious to any logical reason for not doing what we were doing, the adventure for the day was hanging out in the barn.
As it turned out our desire to be in the barn got flipped on us when my dad stuck a stick into the door hinged clasp essentially locking us in.
Soon, all we wanted was to get out of the barn.
My sister was the first to discover our dilemma when she couldn’t open the door.
My brother and I clamored over to help investigate. We could peek through the worn wooden slats and see how the stick was wedged into the clasp.
My sister being eight years my senior was especially distraught. She was the oldest so she was really in trouble.
I, being the youngest, really had no concept of consequences. But I did want to help her with her distress and viewed the situation as absolutely solvable.
I saw clearly what we needed to do and bolstered up my small voice and stated, “all we need to do is hit the stick with a hammer. ”
In my mind this was brilliant and genius.
My sister was not amused and snarked at me, how are we going to get out there to do that?
I saw her point immediately because I was a visionary in the making.
I would love to finish this story by telling you how we got out of the barn.
The truth is I don’t remember how it got resolved.
Chances are I just fell asleep and got carried out by my loving father who was doing his best with 3 rambunctious children.
It is an understatement when I say we were a handful.
The memory I did keep was how I attempted to solve the problem and the surprise I felt when the obvious was pointed out to me.
It wasn’t discouraging. It became another piece of information to ponder over. The solution was still there somewhere. I just knew it.
I felt it and I felt the satisfaction of trying to think out the problem.
I had the first real life dilemma and a taste of what it took to find a solution.
Not breaking the rules in the first place was never part of the consideration.
Developing this skill as a visionary has worked very well for me.
It is not a get rich quick program. Although that is a possibility.
But It has been a success in a meaningful way.
It is more how I have learned to spot the issues before they happen and adjust my approach for a smoother way of doing things.
I forget that not everyone has this ability and I wonder why not. It is not difficult.
It can be viewed more like using a muscle that needs to be exercised.
There are many things that reveal themselves along this way of thinking.
It could be the law of attraction kicks in if you envision a certain path and try to follow it.
Maybe it connects one to their inner voice and guidance helps direct one along the path.
I find it to be a type of meditation when one focuses without looking.
This can show the way forward and reveal potential speed bumps or pitfalls that may arise along the way.
When one directs their energy toward a goal before any action is taken, the direction to take becomes clear.
The other day I said to my son, “I need to raise a large sum of money for a project. How should I do that?”
His reply was, “I don’t know, how would you do that?”
I smiled at the redirect and said “The best way is to sell an idea. I have a lot of those.”
To which he replied, ” You need to have a good one”.
This made me laugh and I remembered that day in the barn when I was six.
“I have lots of good ideas,” I said.
“It is the implementation that is hard.”
Digger 2026