And just like that, I've been gone for five days. I don't know about ya'll, but I'm so used to posting at least every other day or so, that it feels so very odd when I am gone from my blog for any extended bit of time.
That said, I am still recovering from an illness, and it is taking FOREVER to get better. At least I am still breathing, I mean always looking for the cotton candy lining is a thing, right?
This weekend I had to get up and head north to get some hay though. We have a bit of a hay crisis in our part of the PNW, and by crisis I mean that the supply is limited due to a drought and what is available is super pricy. Usually, I put in enough hay to get me from one hay season to another each summer, but thanks to severe early heat and a drought, our local farmers only produced 25% of the area's normal hay crop.
The guy I get my hay from every year sold me what he could, but I didn't take my normal amount of hay because I have a friend who has FAR more animals that I do who needed it more. I just figured I am good at rationing and economizing, so the hay thing would work out, as I would be getting close to having no hay at all by about the end of February.
Well, talk about karma! Through a strange and unexpected set of events, I was gifted several tons of beautiful grass hay! This weekend I ran up north to grab some of it, and let me just say there is one word I am feeling right now: Gratitude.
Instead of fretting about what I couldn't control, which is one of my bad habits, I just went with the situation and believed that a solution would present itself. As I sat, half alive, hurtling up the Idaho Panhandle to collect the hay, my heart felt all sorts of warm and fuzzy.
It's been a rough two weeks, and by all rights I shouldn't have been out of bed to get the hay, but there are just some things you have to be there for, no matter how bad you feel.
And I guess that's my point, there is lots of good in this world. We seem to be constantly streamed the bad, and I am not advocating burying your head in the sand with regards to injustice and rot. What I am pointing out is that you can't control most of that, and sometimes it does your form some serious good to consider the awesome.
The six thousand deer I saw this weekend weren't concerned about the predators waiting around the treed bend who could eat them, they were just focused on the luscious lichen hanging in front of them. They put all their beautiful effort into doing the work at the moment. In that way, instead of freaking out about not having food for my animals due to circumstances beyond my control, I just rolled with it, and a solution beyond my wildest dreams presented itself.
Like Marie Forleo says, "Everything's Figureoutable."
Even when you don't feel good. Even when you're down. Even when things seem impossible, there's good in this world, you just have to focus on what you can control and do the work of living.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's can't believe it finally got out of the house iPhone