Pony-Seeking

There’s a story that goes something like this: Two kids, siblings, open the door to their room and discover a huge pile of manure. Sibling A, the pessimist, says, “Oh no! How did this happen? How are we going to clean up all this crap!?!?”  

Sibling B, the optimist, says “Oh yay! Awesome! With all this poop around then somewhere there must be a pony!”

There must be a pony.  And it’s really a joy to shift my perspective to pony-seeker rather than manure-wallower, which was my previous default.  More and more, through practice, I find myself thinking “where’s the pony?”  rather than “how am I gonna deal with this s—t?”

I know how to shovel.  It’s not that big a deal to shovel when I know it’s in service of something desirable, something bigger than the immediate task at hand.  In fact, I can even find some satisfaction in the shoveling — I swear — when I focus on the fact that the shoveling is a necessary predicate to enjoying the pony.  

So today is gonna be some shoveling for me.  Last week I let slide completely and Fall is coming.  And I love my life and there’s stuff I need to do to keep it going.  Stuff I get to do.  And then I get to enjoy it.  And on and on like that.  I’m gonna keep going.

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