“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” ~Dr. Martin Luther King

In the next 3 articles, we will explore how faith in your higher power, yourself and others, leads you to a life of love, happiness and success.

Faith is with all of us all the time. We may not regularly recognize that faith and pay attention to what it is telling us, yet the vast majority of us are connected by the uniting force that we all have faith and believe in that force that is greater than ourselves. That higher power and our faith in it has the ability to heal physical and emotional wounds and has the ability to guide us to a glorious life here now if we let it.

Are you willing to take the first step even if you don’t see the whole staircase?

Aaron’s story

It was a sun filled freezing morning in late January on our farm. The farm was a ton of work with 6 goats, 50 chickens, a couple of ducks and a pig named “Chunk,” “Cornelius” or “Hamilton” depending on who you asked in our family. Besides caring for the animals, there was always fencing that had to be fixed, maintenance on the barn, poop to shovel and pastures to mow. Despite all this work, our little farm was an amazing oasis during the pandemic. The whole reason we moved there was so the boys could have room to run, play and explore nature. Besides, we are a pretty rambunctious crew and don’t really belong in a peaceful neighborhood.

Farm work was another full time job on top of parenting then 4 kids and running a company. My son Gideon went to the little Montessori school close to the house for preschool. In the fall, the Head of School approached us about allowing students from the adolescent class to help on our farm as part of the school’s learning program. He told us that four 13 year old boys from the school could help with some farm work. Well sure, that sounds great for them and for us.

I would show the boys around, teach them about caring for the animals and assign some small tasks they could handle like fixing fencing, moving hay or cleaning pens. They were only there for a few hours once a week and I wanted it to be fun. The side railing on the bridge over the creek was rotting, so they asked if they could take that on as a winter project. Their teacher Mr. Frank was very handy and they were excited about the bridge project.

It was the end of January, the boys were finishing up the bridge work and I had not come up with new tasks for them or spent much time with them in many weeks because work had been so demanding. So I decided that I would block a morning to teach the boys about strategic planning, setting goals for the year and spend some time with them. I ended up getting a work call scheduled that morning when I was supposed to start working with them, so they were waiting for me. I finished the call, hopped on the tractor by the house and drove down to the barn where they were.

The tractor was one of those big green John Deere tractors with large yellow wheels and yellow seat, a classic farm tractor. My son Gideon who was then 3 loved it. He loved it so much, I had made a seat next to me so he could ride with me. He would wear John Deere overalls from Tractor Supply and even had a tractor cake for his birthday.

Once at the barn, the boys and I discussed the importance of having goals and a plan. So we took to the whiteboard in the barn office and planned the purpose, goals and priorities for the farm over the next 3 years. From this came the farm work that had to be done over the next year and quarter to get us on the path to reach the goals we set. It was fun and they enjoyed brainstorming about the future of this little hobby farm. I loved teaching them about strategic planning.

After the planning session, I got the tractor and drove to the bridge so they could load the old lumber and scraps from their completed bridge railing project into the front loader. I dumped it behind the garage and was done after 3 or 4 trips. Once I was done, I went back and asked the boys if they wanted to go for a ride in the front loader, which I did sometimes with our kids. I took 2 boys at a time and we went very slowly through a field and they had a blast.

We were done and I was about to drive the tractor back to the house when I saw one of the boys I took on the first ride, Aaron, was very upset and frantically crying by the driveway. Mr. Frank was explaining to him that he already got to do the same ride as the other boys. Aaron is autistic and often paces without communicating how he is feeling. I felt horrible that he was so upset, so I stopped the tractor and asked if he wanted to ride it with me to return it to the garage. He climbed up the big tractor and I told him to sit down next to me.

Aaron was not comfortable about sitting next to me and asked to stand. I told him he needed to sit and he insisted on standing. I showed him where to hold the handle and we proceeded down the driveway. All of the sudden, Aaron slipped and fell to the ground off the high tractor, I reached for him and couldn’t grab him. The large rear tractor wheel rode over him.

My reaction was to jump off after him, but in that instant, I knew I had to stop the tractor first. I parked it and ran over to Aaron and screamed louder than I ever have “FRAAAAAANK.” The adrenaline and horror were overwhelming as I ran to Aaron laying on the ground. He was alive and speaking which was a good sign. I had no idea what part of him had been injured by the huge tractor wheel, so I asked him how he feels. He was very calm and quiet. He said his legs were cold. One of the other boys rushed over and we helped Aaron to his feet. Surprisingly, Aaron could stand but did not seem okay, so very slowly, we helped him over to a rock to sit down.

Mr. Frank called 911 and within a few minutes, our farm was filled with what seemed like every ambulance, fire truck and police car in our town.

I was in absolute disbelief as they loaded Aaron into the ambulance and waited for his mom to come. I answered questions for the police and described the accident. I had no idea if Aaron had internal bleeding or was going to survive and I just wanted to know if he was going to be okay. The ambulance left and all the emergency personnel cleared out after what seemed like an eternity. My wife had left right before the accident to pick up Gideon at preschool and had seen all the emergency vehicles pass her, hoping they weren’t headed to the farm.

As soon as everyone left, we went inside and Lyndsy asked me what happened. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t stand. All the adrenaline was gone and I no longer had to be strong for all those around. Lyndsy kept asking me what happened and I couldn’t answer, words could not form. I just headed to our room, crumbled to my knees in pure surrender and desperation and cried harder than I have ever cried. All I could say over and over was that “I could have just killed that kid.”

Mr. Frank told us that evening that Aaron was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where they discovered that he had a fractured pelvis, some internal bleeding and a broken sacrum, the large shield shaped bone at the end of the vertebrae. That night was horrible. I had no idea what to do or how to go on. Was Aaron going to recover? Was he in pain? Was he going to be paralyzed? How was I supposed to wake up the next morning? What was the world going to be like after this horrific life-changing accident?

I just tried to stick to my routine, so I woke up at 5am to meditate outside. When I woke up, I felt absolutely numb, like I couldn’t move. All I wanted to do was hide under the covers and never come out, but I knew I had to face the day and this horrible reality, so I dragged myself up. My journal from that morning reads,

Although I am not quite sure how to move into today, I sat outside in 23 degree windy frosty morning crying and begging for healing for Aaron. I asked God to tend to him and his mother. While I would like to weep with them, I was told by the source of all light to be a leader, to share what they wish, to be strong for them and help however needed. The wisest path is to proceed, although it seems hard, to persevere and offer support and Love.

All I could do is pray and pray and pray. With tears pouring out of my eyes while staring at the bright full moon in the freezing January dawn, I prayed for Aaron to be healed, I prayed for his mother and her strength as she cares for her child. I felt and envisioned and went into his body praying for its healing. I reached out to Aaron’s mom that afternoon, but she understandably did not want to talk. All I wanted to do was help her, be with her and comfort her. I can’t imagine dealing with this with one of our kids and all I wanted to do was help fix it for her but I couldn’t. I felt the gravity of the situation and just kept my mind focused on praying for Aaron’s healing.

The next day was Saturday and Mr. Frank let me know that Aaron was able to stand for 20 minutes unassisted. What wonderful news! Aaron was not going to be paralyzed which was such a huge relief, but we still did not know the long-term impact of the injuries. We were getting day to day updates and he seemed to be making continual progress.

Within a week of the accident, we found out that the Doctors expected Aaron to make a full recovery. All prayers were being answered. We also decided that same day to sell the farm, as we weren’t sure how we could see life there without seeing the accident and we didn’t want to live in fear of one of the kids getting hurt. As we prepared the farm for sale and started looking at houses for our growing family, it was a transformative time and an opportunity to reflect a lot on what happened, what matters and the direction we wanted the future to take.

Aaron had a long recovery, but ultimately did heal completely. When Aaron returned to school a month later, I met with the boys in his class to talk about the accident and how we all felt about it. I let the boys know we were moving, and they were all disappointed that they would not be able to keep working at the farm.

A couple of months after the accident on a beautiful spring afternoon, I pulled up at the school to pick Gideon up and there was Aaron sitting high up on a brick wall he had climbed up. I immediately thought of Humpty Dumpty and did not want Aaron to have a great fall. I got out of the car and pleaded with him to get down that I couldn’t stand to see him get hurt again. I was however overjoyed to see Aaron able to climb that wall and immediately called to tell Lyndsy.

Faith is what brought me through this horrific accident, and faith is what healed Aaron. Now you can argue that regardless of faith, my actions or even inaction after Aaron’s injury, had no bearing on the extent of his injuries or his body’s ability to heal. I however have no doubt that faith has the ability to heal ourselves and others both physically and emotionally. When I gazed up at the full moon eyes full of tears and implored the source of all that is to heal Aaron, when I envisioned going inside Aaron’s body to heal his body from the inside, I was completely connected to him and was a part of his healing through a force that is greater than our individual selves.

As Ram Dass said,

“Faith is not a belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell. Faith is in the heart, while beliefs are in the head.”

I had no belief or understanding to comprehend that I could have just killed or permanently injured a child. How do you believe or explain that? There was no belief, there was no understanding and everything I knew had all been blown to hell in the blink of an eye. Faith was all that was left.

Faith is what sustains us. Faith is everything that we are. When I describe being in complete bliss and seeing joy and love in everything and everyone, that is faith. To live the life of your dreams, you have to have faith in yourself, faith in others and faith in a higher power. Faith is not just imploring a higher power in times of crisis and tragedy to help you out.

Faith is the state of mind to clearly appreciate that all is transpiring in prefect harmony. Even when things don’t go our way and life takes us down to our darkest valleys, it is a part of where we are meant to be, where we are meant to learn, where we are meant to get our next great inspiration and those valleys set us up to reach our highest peaks. But to see that and get to that peak, you must have complete faith when you’re in the valley of despair.

Just seeing yourself with love in the mirror is an act of faith.

Faith in your future self.

Faith to love yourself.

Faith in your ability to forgive yourself and others.

Faith that you are meant for more in this life.

Faith in the power to transform your life to be that person you have always seen in your mind. Faith that you are in control of your life.

Faith that your destiny is yours to design.

All we have to do is accept that faith and appreciate it completely, because we are it and it is us. To see that higher power as something we cannot fully describe yet is always there if we open our hearts.

While this is an extreme example of a tragic event, that same faith that carried me through then, has carried me through many days of adversity as an entrepreneur. We are confronted every day by challenging circumstances as entrepreneurs, professionals and parents. True faith and connection to a higher power carries us through those circumstances with grace and the confidence to press on and succeed.

Take time each day to find stillness and feel the presence of your higher power. The source of all that is is always there for you and will guide you to the personal and professional success you seek. But you must be open to it and find opportunities to listen to your higher power, because therein lies your strength.

In the words of Gandhi,

“There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen power that makes itself felt and yet defies proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive.”

In the next article on Faith, we will discuss why so many of us feel this unseen power and how it unites us.

Visit benparvey.com to download our Habitually Inspired HabiTracker, get inspired and learn more ways to Thrive in 2025.

‍