Beauty In The Chore

Day 20

Once again I decided to force myself into more doing on a Saturday. Kudos to everyone who can work all week then put in a Saturday before resting on Sunday. My body hates this, so I did what any normal human being would do and I had a cup of coffee. 

 

I felt the warmth of it sliding down my throats as I thought about the wonderful things I was going to do with the day. It gave me confidence. After all it was a different weekend and just because last weekend it made me feel like garbage doesn't mean it was going to make me feel like garbage again this weekend. 

I was wrong.

This journey is about honoring my body, mind and spirit so I can do the things with life that I so badly want to do. It is not about forcing myself into doing things. I’ve done that for years and all I got was fat and tired. 

It was too hot. I nearly quit several times. The muscles in my arms protesting with every swing. It was supposed to be rest day. In this moment I decided to fully acknowledge that the quality of strength comes from the quality of rest. 

It had to get done though. The horses have become accustomed to a certain quality of life and that quality of life involves me heading out to bring home grass for them to munch on at least once a week. 

I kept cutting, telling myself that as soon as I was done I would go inside, in the air conditioning, and have a good long rest. I promised myself I wouldn’t do anything for the rest of the day and that I would not allow the horses to run out of grass in the grass tent again so that I will never have to do this on a rest day again. 

I finally filled the last bag and put the scythe and the rake on top of the hay nets now full of fresh grass. 

I had to take a minute to admire the extra long rake handle that was a piece of gnarled knobby drift wood I found on the beach. Despite the many knobs, the handle is now unbelievably smooth with a beautiful almost gloss finish. It looks as though it was finished in a woodworking studio but in truth it’s just become beautiful from hours of use and the oil from my hands.

Catching a glance of myself in the reflection of a window today helped me notice that I was really liking the curves of my body these days. The money I have been saving on feed is starting to become noticeable in the bank account as well. That time spent on this one simple chore was doing so much more for my quality of life than making the handle of the rake beautiful. It was helping to make my whole life beautiful.

                              *****
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