Struggling To Find Ourselves

Okay, I HAVE to admit that I have NO idea what tv lifts are.  It could be any NUMBER of things, if you ask me.  Something to lift these new flat-screen, wide-screen tv’s?  Maybe it’s something to put under your tv to lift it up a bit when it’s sitting too low in your entertainment center?  Maybe it’s for when your tv is old, and needs a support of some type?  Oh, doesn’t the mind run wild with possibilities?  What do YOU think it is?

Oh, she really wasn’t into trading stocks and such much, but she did dabble in it here and there.  Most of what she owned, stock-wise, was stuff that she would never have a use for, but she could see the potential of it in civilization.

One such “opportunity” that she had gotten in on the ground floor of was digital signage.  She could see, even before everything went to being digital, that it was going to take over the world and change the world as we know it.  Needless to say, over the last 3 or 4 years, the value of her stocks and the dividends that she was getting back had soared into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for a year!!!  That was a GREAT way to pay for her “hobby”, she thought!!!

As she started her herd back towards the house, the sprinkles continued to fall.  The cows meandered their way down the mountain, with her following.  Her mind began to think about what she needed to do when she got the cows home and a shower.  She needed to do some online trading. Hey, a girl has to have her ways of making money. The cows and the horses were actually just a hobby for her.  Just like living up here in the mountains was part of her hobby that she so dearly loved!!!

It had started sprinkling on her before she reached the mountain meadow where her cows were hold up in the trees.  It was getting muddy pretty fast even with only a sprinkle because of the saturated ground because of the recent frequent rains.

When she saw her cows in the trees, she glanced off towards the South of them, and saw one of her cows bogged down in the watering hole.  The cow was still struggling, but it wouldn’t be long before the cow gave up.  She knew she had to act fast, if she was going to save her cow.  She quickly rode over to the edge of the watering hole, and took her rope from her saddle as she stepped down.  She made a loop and threw a hula-han that went over the cows head perfectly.  Then she took the end of the rope in her hand, walked back to her horse that was standing quietly right where she left her, took the slack out of the rope, and dallied the rope around the saddle horn and tied it off.  Then she made her way back towards the cow with her gloved hand on the rope.  When she got to the edge of the watering hole, she ducked under the rope, and backed up about 2 steps.  Then she told her horse to back up.  The cow lunged forward in an attempt to get out of the bog, which put a little slack in the rope, and her horse, being a GOOD roping horse, backed up to take the slack out of the rope again.  Again, she told her horse to back up.  The horse attempted to, but the cow was bogged down deeply enough that she was about to the point of giving up on trying to get out, so she wasn’t being much help.  After 2 or 3 more attempts to get her horse to pull the cow out of the bog, she knew that she was going to have to do something, and do something quick.  The ONLY way her mare could pull the cow out of the bog would be with the cow’s help, even if it was only a little help.  But the cow was now to the point of needing some encouragement, so, without a second thought, she waded into the bog behind the cow.  The mud tried to pull her down as she continued to make her way over to the cow.  The more she moved, the further down she felt herself being pulled.  She had finally made it to where she could touch the cow, so that’s what she did.  This particular cow TOTALLY despised being touched for ANY reason, so when she touched the cow, the cow lunged forward with a renewed strength.  As the cow lunged forward, putting slack in the rope, the mare backed up to take the slack out of the rope.  Little by little, they were able to get the cow closer to solid ground.  And then, with one more lunge, the cow was free of the bog and shaking off the mud.  The mare stood still as the cow tried to go to the others, but found she couldn’t because of the rope around her neck.  The woman got to the point in the process of making her way to solid ground that she realized that she wasn’t making any more progress.  So she called her mare over to her.  The mare, though slowed down a little by the cow’s protesting, came to stand on the last piece of solid ground before the bog.  She stood sideways, so that her owner could get ahold of the stirrup on the saddle.  When she had ahold of the stirrup, she commanded the mare to turn to the left, which she did.  As the mare turned to the left, the woman was pulled from the bog, and let go of the stirrup when she was completely on solid ground.  She laid there for a moment, exhausted from her task and covered in mud to about chest level.  She realized then that it was a good thing that she had emptied the laundry hamper this morning by starting a load of laundry before she left the house, because this set of clothes was going to need to be washed separately.

As they continued their climb into the “foothills” that were closer to the mountains, she took in the beautiful scenery, the fresh, mountain air, and the vibrant colors all around her.  She couldn’t help but send a silent “Thank you, Lord” towards Heaven for the splendid atmosphere that she was fortuneate enough to live in.

One thing that she was truly thankful for is the fact that she didn’t have to worry about her weight, like it seems that the rest of society did.  She had seen article upon article telling people “THE” secret to losing weight.  In HER mind, her active lifestyle kept her slim and trim and toned enough that she would never have to worry about how to lose weight. She was ALWAYS on the go, because there was ALWAYS something that needed to be done. And since she was the only one there, most of the time, there was no one else to do it. She had animals depending on her, and she liked it that way.  And she had ALWAYS loved horseback riding, which, in HER mind, was one of the BEST ways to lose weight and tone your muscles!!!

She really hated getting mail sometimes.  In addition to the reviews thing that she hadn’t done yet, she also had an ad for family health insurance that she didn’t need. She had no family to “protect”.  As she continued her climb into the mountains, she wondered why the companies that send these advertisements out don’t research who they are sending them too a little better, so they would actually be sending the advertisements to someone who MIGHT actually be able to use them.

As she rode her mare out of the ranchyard and towards the mountain pasture where her cows were kept, she realized that she hadn’t done the Hydroxycut reviews that had come in the mail yesterday.  “Oh well”, she said out loud to herself.  “It will still be on the counter when I get back tonight.”  And, with that, she rode on in silence with her mind racing among the things that she needed to get done at home.  As she rode further and further away from the house, though, and as the mountains started rising directly in front of her and her mare started having to work a little harder because they were going uphill, her mind started settling down a little bit, and she was able to enjoy the fresh, brisk air and the sweet smell of sagebrush on the small breeze that she felt.

Everything felt right this morning, as she swung up into the saddle.  Her mare felt good underneath her, the jeans felt like she felt like she was born in them even though that they weren’t the “fancy” alli brand with the sequins and stones set in them.  Sequins and stones and pretty things like that had NO place in her life at this point.  The cows and the horses didn’t care what kind of jeans she wore, and she had gotten the impression that they weren’t real impressed with shiny things some days!!

Yep, she figured God had given her her own little piece of Heaven on Earth in the land that she lived on.  Nobody bothered her much.  There weren’t the problems that most of the people who lived in “civilization” dealt with, like pressure to be pretty, or thin, or use diet pills even if you didn’t need them. She didn’t have the pressure to be famous or go with the rest of the crowd.  She didn’t have the pressure of trying to impress the boss to get that payraise that she so desperately needed.  There were no telephones where she lived…VERY few roads, none of which were paved….there was no television to distract you from the things that needed done….there were no people pulling you this way and that way, to do this and to do that.  It was just her, and her mountain, with God, the cows and the horses, and the beauty that God had bestowed upon the land.

Yep, that’s what she led…a different way of life than most everybody else seemed to these days.  That thought flitted across her mind as she threw her saddle on her best mare and started cinching it up.  There was a days’ worth of work waiting to be done and no one else to do it for her.  She enjoyed her life, for the most part…the solitude of the Canadian mountains and being miles from her nearest “neighbor”…the beautiful landscape that beckoned her to get out of bed each morning and greet the day…the work with her horses and the few cows that she had.  Sure, there were things about it that she didn’t really care for much, but the parts that she loved MORE than made up for those moments that she didn’t really care for.

One of those moments that she really didn’t care for was when she had to go to town for supplies.  It didn’t matter if it was supplies for her, or horse supplies, or even cattle supplies, town always made her feel like the Earth was overcrowded and she couldn’t WAIT to get her errands done and get back up the mountain to HER place…to HER little piece of Heaven on Earth!!!