There are times when you start down a path and really have no idea where you will end up. There are times the path veers a bit and you cannot see the end. I kind of feel like I have been on that path this last while.
What started out as a short break, ended up turning into a lot longer time frame than I would ever have imagined! I had planned on taking a few weeks off; but then the world seemed to upend and a few weeks turned into many months. What started as a short path, stretched out into a longer hike than I thought it would.
Taking that path did give me time to focus on other things in life. I focused on my garden, the lawn mowing that needed doing, trying to stay in contact with family that does not live close and all the other things that make up the every day of life.
While the world was busy trying isolate us and to wrap us in a cocoon and various groups were busy trying to tear down everything in their path I just found it easier to withdraw to my small corner of the world and do what needed doing.
In looking back at the time I was just “doing” I realize I could have accomplished so much more than I did! If I look around; I do see all the things that did NOT get accomplished, however, I also see all the things that DID get done.
The garden got planted, weeded, harvested, and is still producing a few tomatoes that promptly get canned. My pantry looks ready for winter and there were also canned goods that ended up in my children’s pantries.
Family and friends were kept close through phone calls, social media and in person visits.
The fields were planted, tended and are now golden and soon to be harvested and put into storage. The haymow has been replenished with grass hay and there is something satisfying about that.
My new group of chickens has started to lay eggs….the eggs are really tiny right now but they will get bigger as the girls get older. The woodpile has grown with rows of wood, split in anticipation of warming our house for the winter.
All in all, it has been a fulfilling season. There was a comfort in the basic daily tasks that needed doing. There was a beauty in the fact of doing everyday “normal” things. It is good to know that some things do not change, even though the world around us seems to spin out of control.
Sometimes, it is good to focus on the task in front of you. Sometimes, it calms the soul and clears the mind. And sometimes, while you are in the middle of the “doing” you realize that you are exactly where you should be and doing what you should be doing.
“Success is the doing,
not the getting;
in the trying,
not the triumph.”
Zig Ziglar
The Chicken Grandma 