Cleaning the stalls

Bill the Magnificent is out of town, and I have the farm to myself. That means I have all the feeding and cleaning to myself. In case you don't know about farms, it also means I have to clean all the horse stalls myself. The good news is that scooping horse pooh is wonderful exercise and burns lots of calories. The bad news is that Bill the Magnificent is further behind with scooping than I realized. 

I did quite a bit of scooping yesterday. Even though it was Sunday, I had to scoop because, really, I didn't have a choice. This afternoon after work, I got another good bit of scooping done. In fact, I can probably afford to have dessert and not worry about calories!  How great is that?

When I am doing all the horse care myself, I prefer to scoop the pooh every day. I like to start each day with a clean stall. Apparently, not everyone feels the same. Regardless, this job must be done and I'm just the woman to tackle it. I am, however, hoping for a snow day tomorrow. I'm definitely going to need a few extra hours!

Thinking about scooping and cleaning stalls always reminds me of a talk I gave some years ago. The topic was "How to Deal with a Broken Heart" and I was so busy scooping that I feared I would never get my talk ready. One day, as I was scooping and praying, I asked The Lord how He thought I was going to get my talk done and figure out how to deal with a broken heart if my horses didn't quit filling up their stalls so quick. I instantly heard that Still Small Voice in my heart ask how I dealt with a stall full of pooh. Finally, I recognized the correct answer. "One scoop at a time!"  Just as soon as I said that, I realized that's how you deal with a broken heart, too. One scoop at a time. 

Most heartaches require time to heal. They also require slow but steady effort at processing the hurt, letting go of anger and bitterness, and moving toward forgiveness. None of thst happens instantly. Instead, it's a "one scoop at a time" job. Perhaps you have heart wounds that need to be healed but seem insurmountable. I know that feeling! Speaking from experience, those hurts, even the ones that cut to your very core, can be healed. Like my stalls, cleaning out hurts is accomplished one bit at a time. Letting go of each layer of hurt opens up the possibility of another layer. Before you know it (even if it takes longer than you wish) all the layers are healed and the hurt is done. 

That's how my stalls will be. I'm going to scoop away and, before long, all the work will be done. I'm going to keep at it. I hope you will, too!