Yesterday my son and I spent several hours on horseback, riding through canyons, grass and weeds taller than our heads, through brush, trees, thickets and deep-steep streams, trying to corral and reunite a cow that inadvertently got lost from her calf. That evening, I had to remove four ticks that decided I was a good home. Through this ordeal I was thinking about all the life lessons we could take away from this cow and her struggle. At best count, there are three.
Lesson One: If you have never been around a cow who has been separated from her calf, you do not know the true meaning of determined and the definition of a “singular focus.” Unlike humans who have the ability to think and reason, a mother cow protects her young by instinct. And that instinct is incredibly powerful.
In our case, the cow believed her calf was somewhere southeast of where he actually was. At one point, the cow had made her way five miles southeast of where she had started. Once we found her, the next two hours were spent moving her, sometimes as few as two or three feet, before she would turn and head back to the southeast were she thought she would find her calf. Other times we would move her nearly a mile and within feet of the corral, when she would turn, head butt the horses and run to the back of the pasture where we had started. Only after two hours when all her energies were spent, did we finally get her in the corral and loaded.
So here is the premise of the first lesson. Despite this cow’s fierce and admirable determination, we need to recognize that every physical step she took, thinking she was getting closer to her goal, was in actuality taking her further away. Consequently, if left to her own devices, she would have never accomplished her goal, which is being reunited with her calf. Ultimately, it was only by us truly breaking her spirit and leaving her with no other choice but surrendering, at least momentarily, that allowed her to reach her goal.
Now, I am not saying we are cattle, although I know a lot of bull-headed people. But I can’t tell you how many times in life I have been so determined I was going to do or be something and used every ounce of my mental and/or physical force to achieve it. However similar to the wayward cow, I found some seemingly unsurmountable force stopping me, in some cases breaking my spirit, and leaving me no other option but to turn around.
I have often thought about these moments to pinpoint a cause be it bad weather, poor markets, poor economy, high interest rates, etc. Whatever the case it was still like some invisible and overwhelming force was directing or herding me to take a different direction.
More ironic in thinking back today on these experiences, I realized that, like the wayward cow, I was not meant to go in the direction I was going, and that the answer to my dreams were actually behind me in the opposite direction. Consequently, just like the cow, I would have never – no matter how much effort, determination, spirit, whatever –achieved my goals. In fact, just like our cow, every step took me farther away from my dreams.
For an even deeper and, in this case, more spiritual meaning or lesson, I wondered (and have personally concluded) that God must have invisible cowboys that he uses to herd and direct, and often has to break our spirit and turn us around to go in the other direction. Speaking solely for myself, I don’t know anything other than some higher spirit at work.
Please don’t get me wrong and take my thoughts as an excuse not to give your best efforts. Because even if we are headed in the right direction, our goals often take immense thought and effort to accomplish, and often the difference between success and failure is just one more proverbial push. But it may also be wise to sometimes stop and ponder whether you are going the wrong way. Realize, it can often be a very thin and fine line between where a little more effort will end with success or total failure.
Reader Comments(0)