Eat the elephant

Getting ready to travel

Have you felt like everything you want is out of reach? The last four years I have lived in that sensation. Buying a piece of land, starting two new careers, establishing a livable home on my own property, upgrading to a real house, and more… it has all felt impossible, most of the time.

Right now Lisa and I are deep in the throes of moving a house onto our property, and it’s a huge undertaking. Most days I ride the edge of overwhelmed. I feel like a guy who’s just swung his leg over a horse that is determined to buck him off. I know if I can stay in the saddle and outlast this beast, I win. If I come off, it’s going to hurt. (Been there, done that, both ways.) I’m not riding for a PRCA buckle, so I’m not embarrassed if I need to grab the saddle horn to hang on. It’s more important to keep my butt in the saddle until this animal decides I’m in charge.

At the same time, we are creating a platform around my writing. I currently have five titles published. Considering that a year ago I had two titles available and neither was selling, we’ve made good progress. Each morning when I face my laptop screen and try to write a few hundred words, though, it feels like hanging on for one more crow hop.

I’ve learned that small steps are important. Celebrate the little victories. Yesterday we had a wonderful time at Cherry Street Books in Alexandria, visiting with people who ducked into the bookstore to avoid the rain and even selling a few books. Some wonderful family and friends stopped in and we got to celebrate with them afterward with wood-fired pizza at the Carlos Creek Winery.

The poured concrete walls on our new basement are firming up. We’re almost ready for the house to be moved. Saw a couple days ago that the mover has placed beams, getting ready to lift the house and wheel it seventeen miles to our new place. Our carpenter needs to place sill plates on the foundation and we will be ready for that. Then electrical, heat, flooring, moving, and more.

Small steps. Hang onto the saddle horn. Celebrate. Repeat.

Mercilessly mixing metaphors, do you know the old joke about how you eat an elephant? It seems like an impossible task. The answer is: You eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I would definitely add that you need a village. The loved ones we sat with yesterday are a great example of the kind of people we have surrounding us. Others call or text to check in, wondering how things are going or encouraging us not to lose heart. We have been leaning hard on a lot of people through these processes, both when we are overwhelmed and when we have victories to celebrate.

So thank you for reading, praying, and celebrating with us. These challenges are all good things. Sometimes life throws horrible things at you, but these are not those kinds of challenges. We can see a light at the end of the tunnel that looks like the realization of big goals. It’s exciting. And at times exhausting.

One more bite.