If You're Tired of Your Shit, Try 'Misting'

Make hay while the sun shines. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. 
When you feel like shit, shovel it into a heap and call it manure for the spring.
*
In German, manure is 'Mist', and so when you move manure, you are a 'Mister', misting.
At Lydia's farm where I've been WWOOFing, there are easy days and hard days. Easy days look like the following: pitching hay and straw for the sheep and cows, hand feeding a couple of struggling lambs, carefully distributing flour to the pigs so that they don't fight each other at meal time, collecting eggs, and hauling firewood. 

These lambs are so ravenous, a bottle goes down in half a minute. 
The sweet part is short. Let's get down to misting.

A hard day is all of that, plus misting. Nothing is a better antidote to romantic notions of farm life than wading around in festering pools of pig urine, trying to balance as many solid turds onto your shovel as you can, and simply accepting that you will gag on the ammonia fumes. It's a bit like trying to shovel golf balls out of a pond while under gas attack. After a day of misting, you feel like you could put your chin on your chest and fall asleep while sitting at the kitchen table at 7pm. But you should probably shower first. And how do you get rid of that smell on your hands?

Despite this, misting is one of the most satisfying tasks. Hand feeding lambs from baby bottles is sweet, but there's something psychologically cleansing about throwing your entire physicality into clearing out a stagnating stable and leaving it fresh as a pasture meadow. Or a straw fortress. 

The effects are immediate for the Mister. You feel lighter, more spacious, like some great weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Like you accomplished something arduous that really made a difference. 

Here's what I've noticed as I have been the Mister, misting veritably tonnes of Mist:

The key to clearing your mind is to shovel your shit out. Everybody has stuff that builds up over time. That's normal. So just clear it out. Appreciate how much it stinks like hell. And then, forkful by forkful, pitch that shit out, and let it become fertilizer for your dreams. 

Now that's the cycle of sustainability.

Don't let the shit you've lived through go to waste. And don't disparage it or try to hide it. Honor every part of your life. The more it stinks, the better it will grow your next projects.

Pour your heart out into the shovelling. Let every oomph and grunt carry another wheelbarrowfull of the shit away. Release all your caked down anger and resentments as you throw your arms, legs, and back full force into prying that shitty stuff off the ground and throwing it over the gate. 

Repeat, repeat, and repeat. It feels good, doesn't it? You don't want to stop, do you? Keep going until it's all gone.

Take a breath. It's fresh now. You did that. 

Onwards to the new.

Let your past shit fuel and fortify your future joy. There's no reason why it can't.

Whew. That was a shitload of work. Let's do it again tomorrow.