Balance

By many if not most definitions it's a miserable day here. Its cold and blowy with a stiff northeast breeze driving 29 degree air temps to hover in the teens with the wind chill index. To top it off, a thick freezing fog is knocking viz down to 1,500 feet and causing a rime of ice to adhere to nearly everything, even the dogs.

I like the weather. Sure, it makes working outside miserable, but that's just an opportunity to excel. Suck it up, drive on, and be better for the experience. There's also a great deal of beautiful majesty in nature's wintry weather. And finally, you can't properly (at least I can't) enjoy nice weather if there's no not-nice weather to measure it against. Nature provides us with a healthy balance. It's up to us whether we enjoy and appreciate. Or not.



My next youngest brother has been out here for several days working his ass off on the ranch cleanup project. Together he and I have done a lot of good work, on his own he's done even more.

We installed new LED lighting in the shop, got the tractor running right, rehabilitated various other pieces of equipment, and did a lot of cleaning and straightening.



With my nerve pain and pending time in the body shop I had a bit of a struggle to do my share, but it was a good struggle and far better than shirking work because "pain." There's a lot to be said for working through pain, and at my advanced age the work means testing mobility and functionality. That's a good thing because it encourages the body to do its healing thing with a mind toward being active and mobile rather than sedentary and recliner bound, which leads only to a miserable end so far as I can tell..

It's tricky striking the proper balance between effort and recovery. That's okay, it's the way reality works. Nothing on the tee-vee or intermanet holds the answer. Every person has to seek and find their own balance. Mine isn't yours, and yours isn't mine. The choice for me is seek or not seek, and I come down on the seek side. It hurts, but pain is weakness leaving the body, or perhaps more properly, the mind.



As for the chore of cleanup and maintenance at the ranch, each of us also face the challenge of striking a balance. Are we going to do a half-assed job of things on the seemingly countless list of jobs, simply to get done as quickly as possible? Are we going to be meticulous perfectionists with every detail and therefore not get anything done? Or are we going to find a broad middle ground which will likely yield best results over time?

I don't know. The jury is still out. We'll keep plugging away though.



Be well and enjoy the fruits of Liberty!