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I was driving around out here one day about ten years ago, on the hard road that is across the river (which is a far better road than ours), and we stopped in front of the house where my dad grew up. It’s about a mile from where I live now. At the time, I lived over a thousand miles away from here, in the suburbs. The road was blocked by geese. Big, tall, gorgeous white geese. I thought the sight was adorable and quite picturesque, these geese waddling in a flock down the road. But I imagined what that stretch of road must be like in the winter. Icy and narrow and curvy and miles, miles, miles from town. Yet, clearly, there were people who lived out here. The house my father grew up in is still occupied, and there are scattered homes and farms in the area. But, wow, the primitive hardship of it all! I mean, how did these people even survive?
I said, “I would NEVER live out here.” And I certainly couldn’t imagine it. I’ve said, or just believed, never about a lot of things. I never thought I could live on a farm.
I never expected to have goats.
I never thought I’d get to hold baby lambs every night while their mamas ate their dinner.
I never thought I’d have miniature donkeys.
I never would have believed I’d have a swarm of chickens at my feet every morning.
I never thought I’d know how to can tomatoes. Or be able to define a conserve. Or make my own cheese. Or grow my own grapes.
I never thought I’d quit writing romance novels. I never expected to be successful writing anything else.
I never thought I’d ever take a halfway decent photo.
I never thought I’d wear muddy boots caked in poop every day.
Or know the difference between hay and straw.
And be able to tell other people the difference between hay and straw.
Life is full of surprises, and the only never that is really true is that….
….you never know what will happen tomorrow.
Especially if you stop saying never.
P.S. Please excuse the mystery fluff scattered about the porch. You never know what dogs are going to bring back from the woods.
P.P.S. It’s okay to use the word never in the same sentence with things dogs bring in from the woods.
P.P.P.S. What have you thought you could never do, but did? And maybe more important, what do you need to stop thinking never about so that you can get something you really, really want?
Posted by Suzanne McMinn | Permalink
