No one consulted farmers when they put Memorial Day on the calendar.

Frankly, if they had, it wouldn’t come at the end of May.

I know so many of you were racing to get your fall crops in the ground over Memorial Day weekend this year. Taking advantage of the recent moisture to get those crops off to a good start means sacrificing the time spent with the kids to watch the local parade. Some of you were in the alfalfa field, making the first cutting of the season. Others were in shops, tuning up combines and getting harvest trucks ready to go because the wheat doesn’t look at a calendar — and alfalfa won’t wait until after the family barbecue.

And yet, all across this state, at some point during the day, farmers and their families stopped what they were doing. They idled engines. They put down wrenches. They pulled the truck over. And they took a solemn moment to pause and reflect on Memorial Day.

When I think of Memorial Day I think of the little cemetery across the road from my country church. Every grave would be graced with flowers, and every veteran’s grave would have a small American flag.

Every war since the Civil War was represented in that cemetery, too. For a little community, our people stepped up to serve their nation when they were asked.

Many of our rural friends and family have stepped up to serve in the Armed Forces. Back in 2011 the Pentagon estimated that 44% of military recruits came from rural areas. It’s more unusual not to have a connection to some branch of the military in rural Kansas, if you think about it.

That’s part of why Memorial Day means more than a federal holiday from work out here in farm country. We look at those flags waving on the graves, and we remember that someone before us stepped up to serve their country and their neighbors and made the ultimate sacrifice.

We have a duty, too. A duty to remember their sacrifices, and to honor their memories by living up to their examples.

When I was a kid looking at those flags in our little church cemetery, I asked myself, how can I be of service like these veterans? Living up to their example may also be why rural Kansans step up to the needs of their communities on a local, state and national level as well. It’s our smaller way to repay them.

That’s what I reflected on this past Memorial Day when I paused from my own activities. I said a prayer for those who’ve served and for the families who served with them. And I renewed my own vow to be worthy of their service.