Tough Shit!

Lately I've had some time to let my mind wander and it tends to either come up with total drivel or something that may actually be a bit deep and meaningful. Stacking 300+ bales of hay is sweaty, muscle challenging work! While I do have to pay attention to getting the bales stacked so I don't have an avalanche in the barn, it is also a time for my mind to wander around. Another task that gives me time to ruminate with my ruminants is while cleaning their pens. That is what I was up to when the following thoughts snuck in.

I have a neighbor's grandson coming up on occasion to help me for an hour. He just turned 8 and has been raised on a farm so he is used to being with larger beasties and isn't squeamish about....welllll...about poop! He told his grandma that he would work for goat milk! How many kids would be willing to do that but he really enjoys my girls milk on the day it is produced?

Our conversations are often pretty ordinary "why do their bellies look so big?" "Why are their ears different shapes?" "Why does Thora like to sniff the top of my head?" but last week he dropped a gem. It went something like this.

Him ~ What do you FEED THEM?

Me ~ Eh....well, they get hay and pelleted grains and water

Him ~ I don't like that!

Me ~ OK, why?

Him ~ Do you see what I am trying to clean? This is hard as a rock! You shouldn't give them food that turns into something this hard because it makes it VERY had to get the pitchfork under and it is super heavy.

Me ~ Well, if I would clean the pens more frequently they wouldn't have time to walk on it and smoosh the hay onto it and sleep on it to make it that way.

Him ~ No, I think you just need to change what you feed them.

All that is pretty simple right? But, after taking him home with his quart of fresh goat milk and returning to work some more, my mind had to make a bigger deal out of his words.

What do we feed ourselves? Lets take that beyond the "I eat this" kinda thing. What do you feed your mind and your soul? What do you feed your family and your community? What do you feed your customers and your friends? Is it something healthy? Do you speak words of kindness and encouragement? Do you set an example for a healthy way to live by respecting yourself and others? Do you look for ways to help others instead of just being "me-centric"?

What you consume matters! If you eat the wrong foods your body cannot be healthy. If you feed your mind more focus on negative, greedy, power-questing information, it will be filled with rot. If you fill your soul with negativity, hatred, fear and feelings of superiority it will become dark and hard.

Then there is the other side of that problem my young helper was having. That shit had been allowed to lay there, in the pen, walked on, hay ground into it, and slept on. It became matted down and compacted. Had I taken the time to clean it out more often it would not have become so hard and difficult to clean up.

What you do for yourself matters! If you take the time to rest, to let your mind take breaks from focusing on the negative and to watch a beautiful sunset, the harder aspects of our lives have less of a chance of becoming matted down and difficult to work through. If you take the time to acknowledge the ickier parts of life but purposely move past them, your soul has a chance of being lighter and brighter.

We are in some very challenging times. The information that could be soul crushing scrolls on our TVs and phones 24/7. Conversations are littered more and more frequently with startling, scary and divisive words and actions.

I'm challenging you to watch the shit your feed your mind, body and soul. And, I challenge you to clean those piles of shit out on a regular basis so they don't get so matted down that it is more than a 8 y.o. boy to move.

Hugs!