Finding Peace in the Poop

    This has been one of the most trying two weeks I have had in a very long time! First irrigation pumps go out, then a pool pump, my basement floods with septic water, as they are doing repairs they find asbestos, and a gas leak! While I know these are all problems that can be fixed and will be, it gets very hard to keep positive in these situations. When you know it costs money for repairs, and even if insurance is dealing with it they can almost be as big if not a bigger headache then the problem itself! Then the icing on the cake while dropping my daughter off at school my phone in my pocket gets stuck on the seat and tears my pants! I have a large hole in the seat of my pants, panties and skin exposed! I think back to the Psalms 118:24 " This is the day that the Lord hath made let us rejoice and be glad in it." I have to chuckle because all of these days are the day the Lord has made, man, has he given me some doozies all in a row! Yesterday I really felt it wearing on me, I was tired, I was grouchy, I felt as though it was two steps forward and four steps back and I wasn't getting anywhere. So here I sat in the car with a big hole in the seat of my pants thinking what am I going to do now.

    

    I went into the house I looked around at everything that needs to get done and wanted to sit down and cry. I knew I didn't have time for that I had chickens outside that needed fed and watered. I had ducklings that were demanding that they got fed, a dog crying because she wanted to go outside and run and play. I grabbed my Bluetooth speaker went outside turned on my music and got to work. I got my chickens watered and fed, picked up the trash that had blown around our backyard, started spraying the fruit trees for bugs. As I worked I forgot about everything else that has been going on around the house. I drug that hose from one side of the yard to the next. With an acre property this is a lot of work! Next I looked in my chicken coop there was one of the biggest tasks of all. Something I have been putting off and putting off because I didn't want to do it! With everything else going on it was the easiest thing to put off! Cleaning the bedding out of the coop! We do what they call the deep litter method where through the winter you stir and stack new litter on top of the dirty litter to turn the poo and straw into compost eventually. It was that time to scoop it out to add to the compost, Lord help me! I didn't want to do it I needed that push. I got the wheel barrow and my pitch fork and decided I just had to dig in whether I wanted too or not. As I dug and scooped and flipped the straw turning it taking piles of it out to the compost I began to get into a rhythm and as I worked I just felt at peace. Here I was shoveling poop from one spot to another and I was at peace. I watched my chickens pecking around, listening to their little chirpy noises and scratching at the ground. I listened to my ducks with their low quacks wandering around the yard in their little lines. Then it hit me here I am in these piles of straw and poop and I was happy. It didn't matter that I was surrounded by poop I was happy, I was at peace, I was enjoying myself poop and all. In that time I realized that even with everything going on around me there is still so much to enjoy. I can be surrounded by troubles in my life but around me there is still so much to love. Standing there in that poop I had my chickens running around not a care in the world just doing what chickens do, my ducks splashing and enjoying their pool, and a mama hen in her little crate busy waiting on her babies to finish hatching. There was peace in that poop, I am hoping this will be a lesson I will keep with me always!