It Takes All Your Strength To Get Back Up

It had been a long day. A very long day. I wasn’t in the best mood and as I was carrying baby calf bottles down the driveway for night feeding I see three big milk cows staring at me. It seems the gate somewhere did not get shut.

First things that go through a farmer’s mind immediately after spotting cows out:

Oh crap!
How many are out?
Where did they get out?
What pen do they need to go back into?
How am I going to do this without having them run the opposite way?

Yes, those all do go through your head simultaneously after seeing cows out. So thankfully the cows knew what gate they came out so they headed right back. The problem was right next to it was an open gate to a corn field. Now for those that don’t know, cows love grass and corn plants. So of course they all run in and trample the corn we plan to harvest in the fall to sell. So my dad comes over with the four wheeler to help outrun the cows and cut them off. I’m literally running on very uneven ground to chase them and stop them from going the wrong way.

All of a sudden I turn my ankle the wrong way and fall onto my knees on the hard, bumpy ground between the corn rows. The sky was blue, hardly any clouds and the sun beat down on my back. My dad is yelling “Are you okay?” “Are you okay?” I’m just there on my knees, hands on the ground about to cry. Like I said it had been one of those days. You know the kind where nothing goes right and you feel at one of the low points in your life.

I’m there ready to throw in the towel. Say “I give up.” “This is ridiculous!” “Why me?” All the things. But as every farm girl knows, you can’t stay down. You have to get back up. For better or worse the cows, don’t care that you’ve had a bad day. You have to get them back to the pen before they trample or eat the field of corn. You have to get back up and chase them.

I probably have stories upon stories like this, but today it just hit me close because I’m currently in a transition period in my life and questioning if I should just give up. It reminded me that we have to keep going. We only get one life. We only get one chance to do all the things we want to do. So if it’s important to you and brings you happiness, even on the worst days, just keep going. Keep moving toward that goal. I can promise you have a cheering section somewhere knowing you can do this and you can make that goal a dream come true.