Growing Pains
Image from TieuBao Truong from Pixabay
What a difference a year makes. Last year this time I was knee deep in mud, literally, and things were so very difficult. Basic tasks caring for the horses, were nearly impossible, and it was hard to feel optimistic even with spring trying to break winter’s grip. Over 20” of rain fell from the middle of November through January last year, which is highly unusual for where we live.
Completely saturated ground churned up by the horses turned simple tasks of putting out a round bale into an almost impossible challenge. Throw on top of that 40mph wind gusts, and it almost flipped the tractor while trying to get the bale into the field over the fence. At that point I was pretty much at the end of my rope.
While this spring is different (almost too dry at this point, which is a completely different, but equally worrisome problem), the wind has still been challenging, and we’ve had plenty of gray days which is making my late season SAD very present.
It’s times like these what we have to keep reminding ourselves (and each other) is that it is always challenging right before it gets better. It’s darkest before the dawn. Seeds germinate in the dark. The baby birds get kicked out of the nest and have to learn on their own how to bird.
There is no amount of growth that can happen without discomfort.
This is where we can take a lesson from the animals and from the wild world in being able to have grace in the midst of it. We can see the struggle in the baby bird’s efforts to fly. We never notice the struggle of the plants. We admire their pretty green shoots coming up, and never realize the amount of effort that it took to get there (all in the dark no less. There’s probably a whole ‘nother conversation in there that could be had about our assumptions about that!).
So often when we hit these points in our lives we make the struggle wrong, which only adds to our burden (cough my burden cough) and makes the whole experience that much harder. The baby birds struggle, but they don’t make the struggle mean anything. The plants simply keep going, no matter the weather.
The answer, while not easy, is simple. We need to get back to reconnecting with source energy. Call it God, divinity, the universe, source, whatever. It is there waiting for us to reconnect and tap back in. When we can take the time to do that, despite what’s going on around us, so much more information and ease opens up to us.
Getting stuck in the bad feelings is never the answer, and yet it is so easy to do.
So the next time you find yourself in the overwhelm, see if you can find the space to pause and spend a few minutes reconnecting. Put your feet in the dirt, connect with the energy of the trees, work with your pet to reconnect to that universal energy stream. There are dozens of different techniques that will get you there, so seek out whichever one works the easiest for you in the midst of the chaos and struggle.
I can promise you that you’ll lose nothing by taking a moment to reconnect, and the possibility of what you might gain is monumental.
What nature, baby birds, and seeds teach us is that the struggle never goes away. That is part of growth and living. When we can embrace that, then when the sun comes out it will be all that much brighter and more beautiful when we are soaring.
