The Complex Simplicities of Life

I have been meaning to write this post for the past few days and it has slipped my mind. But I leave for Wyoming tomorrow so I decided even though it's late I had better do a brief summary. Last Friday we had a beef cow come in for surgery to remove two extra teats on her udder. They weren't causing a problem, but she is a show cow and with that, appearance is everything, even though no one much cares about teats on beef cows. On Saturday we had two emergencies in the evening. One was an anemic llama that we gave blood transfusions to and the other was a beef heifer in labor who had a prolapsed vagina. I was hoping we were going to get to do something with the cow and pull the calf or do a C-section or something wild, but we just put her in the stall and kept an eye on her. Slightly anti-climatic. On Sunday I met my folks for dinner after riding Rusty. I spent a good part of the afternoon cleaning up the trails where we ride since the high winds on Friday knocked down lots of branches and several trees. Now back to the title of this post--the complex simplicities of life.

Wind--So as those of you who live in Ohio know, there was a bit of a strong breeze that raced through Friday night. I was fortunate to not lose power, but I know many people that did and several that are still without. It's astounding to see massive trees uprooted and thrown around; it's something I thought you'd only see with a tornado. I have been working at the hog barn the past few days and have been meaning to take pictures but I keep forgetting. Part of the roof on the horse barn next door is completely peeled off and scattered around the premises. Our large gooseneck stock trailer was picked up by the wind and thrown over thirty feet into the side of the barn. I'm glad I wasn't there for that.

Sun--This  morning I was blessed to get to see a gorgeous sunrise. I was in the right place at the right time to see the sun creep over the clouds and light up the morning sky with colors. It was beautiful!

Life and Death--On Monday morning there was no electricity at the hog barn and it had gone out on Friday. Of course it happens to be a farrowing weekend and one sow was in labor and overheating. We tried to cool her with water but she unfortunately she died anyway. We could see the piglets still moving inside her so my boss asked me if I've ever done a C-section on a pig. Definitely not, but she was already dead so what did I have to lose? We got the pigs out as fast as possible and I felt a couple weak heartbeats on two of them but we were sadly unable to revive them.

Happiness--I've always found it interesting how different things make people happy. One thing may mean the world to you but another person has no interest. In the grand scheme of life, I suppose that's a good thing. If everyone loved the same things, how boring would life be? I sit pondering this mostly because I will nearly be in Wyoming tomorrow at this time and that thought makes me the happiest person in the world. I try to explain it to people, but I think it's just something you have to experience. A friend of mine went to Wyoming recently and she texted me a picture of a beautiful view with mountains and wild flowers. All her text said was "I understand now... WOW!" I don't think I could sum it up any better than that. To me, Wyoming is a place where "everything feels right". Sitting at the top of Fan Rock watching the sun rise, laying in a field of wild flowers and breathing in their aroma, running on a horse with the wind in your face...if ever my soul has felt overwhelmed with the goodness of God, it's moments like these. And I look forward to what the next week and a half brings.