Ten days out and we are beginning to feel the anxiety of what lies ahead. To get my mind off of things, I took the tractor mower out for a spin. Being out in the field brought back some great memories of working with our livestock. One story came flooding into my thoughts which brings the term brown noser into a new light. Now I am aware that this term can fall into the crude category but bear with me.
On a cold fall morning I was hauling a huge load of manure to my truck in a wheelbarrow. About two weeks had passed since the barn had been cleaned and it was brimming with golden horse apples. Extending from the rear end of the truck was a plank that spanned an angled distance from the tailgate to the ground. I prepared myself for maximum exertion to push the full wheelbarrow up the ramp from ground level.
As my fortune would unfold, I traveled up the ramp with great force and slipped on some ice near the top. My feet left the plank but I held on, with determined pride, to the handles of the wheelbarrow. For a split second I found myself suspended horizontally in mid air while facing the plank. With gravity now at work, my chin met up with the plank. Laying there face down on the plank with my hands still clinging to the wheelbarrow, my cargo was now higher than my head. I looked up and could see what was coming next. The whole wheelbarrow tipped backwards and I was quickly encased in horse _ _ _ _.
As I laid there my life slowed down for a moment and I wondered if anyone had just seen what happened. No video cameras, no cell phones, nobody in sight to snap a photog and post it for the world to see. I had to laugh, I got away with it! It was my little secret. So I picked myself up, dusted myself off and went on with my day.
Moments later I was sitting at the breakfast table with my dirty little secret tucked away. To my surprise, my wife asked me a question. “Honey, what is that brown spot on the end of your nose?” My pride had been exposed so I figured I had better fess up. Within minutes we were both laughing our heads off. Those humbling moments of life are what make us human, we slip and fall and our ego gets bruised. I have found that we can't take ourselves too seriously because when we do, it usually isn't long before somebody recogizes the teeny spot of brown on the end of our nose.
Keep it rollin,
Scott and Sarah