There are many things in life, including writing, that demand discipline to get accomplished when your motivation seems to have gone on vacation.
We’ve all had those mornings when getting out of bed doesn’t seem worth it, or heading out to work only feels like drudgery. But one of the characteristics that make us human is the fact we can rise above our feelings.
Think of the chaos that would ensue if the rules of society were amended to accommodate feelings:
Take a shower and brush your teeth, unless you don’t feel like it.
Feed any pets you have, unless you don’t feel like it.
Love your neighbor as yourself, unless you don’t feel like it.
Stop when the traffic light turns red, unless you don’t feel like it.
A society ruled by feelings might make a good backdrop for a dystopian story, but I suspect it would be a rather short story. Writing, like practically everything else in life, is an accomplishment that must be tackled even when you don’t feel like it. Yet accomplishing something always gives you a good feeling.
Yes, this post is shorter than normal, but at least it got written, even though I didn’t feel like blogging….
a. e. branson 
But some days you just have to face reality, no I don’t feel like writing, I’m too tired, I can’t concentrate, can’t think, so perhaps I’d better go procrastinate elsewhere. Or read a few blogs that caught my attention earlier in the week when I had no time because… ooops… sick sheep needed tending to even when I didn’t feel like it.
🙂
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How true it is! You reminded me of my goat milking days and how the goats must be milked despite the weather being bad or even if the person who’s milking is feeling under the weather. Things like sick sheep are an ironic example of how tending animals enriches our lives!
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My life has been highly enriched this week. 🙄
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At least hopefully you have more bouncing baby lambs to look forward to instead of sick sheep! 🙂
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One of the sick sheep is supposed to be pregnant…
That said, she has perked up massively, and is due to be let back out into the field tomorrow. 🙂
So that gives me about six weeks to complete a huge number of jobs, and then we start ewe-watching.
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Glad to hear she’s getting better. Pregnant mamas are even more concerning because you actually have two (or three, or sometimes four if she decides to get really productive) patients you’re dealing with. Hopefully in six weeks everybody will be done being sick!
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Sheep – they give with one hoof and take with the other.
Our poorly pregnant ewe seems to be OK and was released back into the flock today.
An elderly ewe (born 2006!), who has been getting a sneak-preview of the spring grass, took a tumble over-night, in the depths of a gorse bush and couldn’t get up. She’s now being treated for hypothermia…
(A week ago, when we had the vet out for the youngster, he took a look at the old girl and said she was in good shape for a sheep of her age. Today she looks at death’s door.)
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Sorry to hear about the old ewe. It’s seems to be one of those constants how an older person or animal appears to be doing well, and then one mishap changes the whole ballgame.
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That’s definitely the way it goes…
The day after we had to have the vet out and euthanise the old girl. At just shy of 17 she wasn’t the record holder who died a few months before she was 18.
So, we have one left now of the lambs who were born in 2006 just before we took the flock on.
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That’s a shame, yet in an way accompanying animals from their births to their deaths makes us realize how much of a blessing they were to us. One left from the original lambs – maybe that one will be the record breaker.
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It is sad when they go. I think it hits my partner harder because she spends more time with them, but the cycle rolls on. The older ones die and lambs are born.
The current eldest will need to keep on breathing for another year to break the record. 🙂
We had a black ewe who was a couple of years old when we took on the flock. Our black sheep was called Cilla ( there was a big-name entertainer over here called Cilla Black) who died a couple of months short of her 18th birthday. She was also known as “Aunty” Cilla for being this amazingly laid-back ewe who would baby-sit *all* the lambs whilst the rest of the ewes were grazing.
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The other ewes probably miss Cilla, too. 🙂 One of the fun parts about raising animals is encountering all their different personalities.
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I don’t think we even considered the different personalities when we started, but the people who were baby-sitting the flock before we took them on that some of the ewes who lambed that spring went round to the point closest to the house to show off their lambs. We discovered the variations very quickly. 🙂
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That reminds me of a lamb we had to bottle raise back in my late childhood. When she was old enough to join the flock, she actually made the rest of the sheep a little easier to handle because she always ‘wanted’ to come up to us when we’d go out amongst them.
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Ours were a “show flock” so they came fairly tame. We’ve largely maintained that even though we don’t show them, but there’s still a spread of behaviours from the ones who will march up to you in the field to check for snacks, and the ones that give suspicious looks from a distance. The snack-brigade serve the same function as your bottle-lamb – they come in and everyone else follows. 🙂
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Who needs a Judas goat when you’ve got Judas sheep? 😉
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My first reaction to rules ‘unless you don’t feel like it’ was: “That’s exactly how it is.” I might have been a bit dramatic, but I do think that’s the direction we’re headed towards. Sure, with some limits, but I feel like we keep pushing them farther and farther. We put more value on doing what we feel like doing rather than what is right and should be done. It worries me.
As far as writing is concerned – there are times when I’m completely tapped out and need a break. However, other times I feel I need to do something, anything, so that I don’t slip deeper. I guess you have to know yourself to be able to determine what is really needed and what’s the best course of action whether you feel it or not.
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I share your worry. Except for stuff like sitting on the couch and eating bonbons, everything in life is easier said than done. We all get tapped out now and then, but slowing down instead of coming to a complete halt is often better for us – sort of like feeling better after exercise or a walk, even if you didn’t feel like doing it in the first place. You’re right – ‘know theyself’ is an important philosophy!
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Bon bons… Mmmmm…
Wait, what were we talking about?
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😀
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