‘It never fails!’ is a classic line which any farmer you ask would probably tell you they use at least once a day, if not ten times a day.
It never fails; anytime you hope to be done chores early, something always goes wrong to delay you. The night of a first date, the largest cow in the barn goes down in the parlour, so you’re delayed by forty-five minutes from having to get her up and out. Thank goodness the date is with another farmer so he completely understands that it never fails.
The big day finally comes to move the cows into the new free-stall barn. It takes six plus hours to get the girls moved in. Everyone is eager to test out the new milking system, and get home, but of course it never fails… Pumps that were working in the morning, now need to be tinkered with, delaying start time by an hour. But there’s always a silver lining in every ‘It never fails’ moment. A delayed start meant we had time to rest our feet and soak in some fresh air and sunshine before getting back to work.
These moments happen in any profession and even in our own homes, but they especially seem to always happen on the farm. To the point where we’ve wanted to duct tape our mouths shut because anything we say out loud that might happen, almost always ends up occurring.
Over the years, I’ve learned that rushing through chores to get to a social outing or an appointment almost never pays off. A cow will always calve or something will break, adding to your to-do list. If I’m already more bubbly than usual, a change in the routine will often get me more frazzled or frustrated, which isn’t fun for myself or anyone around me. Slow, steady and efficient will always pay off more than sloppy and rushed. The same can be said for my day-to-day routines at home.
Finding the silver lining in every moment and not rushing are lessons which can be applied to all aspects in life. There’s no point in getting worked up over instances that go wrong – especially if they are out of our control. Getting worked up often leads to more mistakes, or people getting hurt. Remaining calm, laughing about ridiculous coincidences and figuring out how to solve problems together are much better solutions than being at each other’s throats all the time. Rushing through life just causes us to miss out on what is happening in the
present and leads us to having regrets or wanting more.
Our day-to-day jobs, routines, and expectations are never going to as planned. It never fails! As long as we make the most of each situation, learn from our mistakes and continue to move forward with smiles on our faces, we will always come out ahead, even if it’s 20 minutes later than we had planned!
