We can all understand the feeling of being inundated with things that need our attention. Whether at home, school, or work, we always feel as though something is pulling us from task to task. As a morning starts later than expected, Josey learns that sometimes rushing gets him nowhere. We need to slow down and allow our brains to work through the conflicts in our lives. Otherwise, all the rushing we do will get us nowhere either.

It’s 5:40 am, and I overslept somehow. My bride is home with the oldest today. She goes back to work and he goes back to school. The youngest goes back to school tomorrow, so he and the puppy are with me. The best way to wake a boy is to let a puppy jump on him and lick his face. After a few good licks, the puppy decides it’s time to chew on his hands. The boy is awake now.

I tell the youngest I overslept, and we need to put a wiggle in it. A year ago when I retired I told the family my days of rushing were over. For thirty years I rushed, and I was tired of rushing.  It’s hard to change the way we learn to operate, and my poor brain thinks rushing is the only way to do something.  This last year has been a constant battle to change.

As we walk out of the cabin, I realized I overslept for this.  The sun was coming up and the steam was rising off the pond.   You cannot buy that off the internet. Only God has that site.

The youngest says he is hunting in the Mouse Stand.   I do think, for the most part, it’s universal that hunting locations or stands have a name with meaning. All of ours do. Some are obvious and others are not. He drops me off and drives my manual stick shift Jeep to the other side of the farm.  I taught both our boys to drive a manual stick shift.  It’s important for them to understand that in order to move forward it takes more than pressing one pedal. Sometimes in order to move forward you must do multiple things.

I climb my perch and settle in for the cool morning.  The sun breaks through the pines and casts a shadow of them below me.  The steam rises from the pine bark and finds its way to the blue sky above.   The rush is over now.

To me, the brain works hard to resolve conflict.  Once the brain finds a suitable less conflicted pathway for us, it accepts this new pathway.  I always said I would retire at the mandatory age of 57, but when politics and the feeling I was not making a difference seem to be too much, I thought about retirement.  Once that thought was in my head it stayed there.  The more it stayed there the more I accepted that option. After a year of accepting the path of least resistance. I retired 6 years before I had to. 

I think our brain does this for most decisions that conflict our ability to move forward.  I also think our brain does not always offer the best solutions to the conflict. That is why we have peer support, professionals, and trees to perch ourselves in.   To resolve the conflict that hinders our ability to move forward, we need time and space where we feel grounded to the earth. We must return back to our roots and let the brain do it’s job. Out from under the duress that life can shine upon us.

The wind has picked up and the sun is now overhead.  The pine tree shadows have moved and if I stand on my little platform, I too will make a shadow. The shadow of a simple man trying to resolve the conflict in his life.  A simple man watching two boys making their own shadows and hoping they shift gears better than he did.  A simple man praying the shadow he leaves behind will help others find paths with less conflict.