60 Seconds for Thoughts on Thursday: I Just Know There’s a Pony Down Here Somewhere!

Hello to you listening in Antwerp, Belgium!

Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds for Thoughts on Thursday and your host, Diane Wyzga.  

Perhaps you’ve heard the old joke about two boys each of whom is brought into a room in the middle of which is a staggeringly high heap of horse manure. The first boy looks at the pile in disgust and says, “What’s the big idea? This is nothing but a pile of horse manure!” But in the other room the second boy is down on his hands and knees gleefully scooping away at the heap saying, “I just know there’s a pony down here somewhere!”

We all face unfairness, difficulties, challenges, and worse. And yet these might not be wasted moments if we can see a chance to learn from the misfortunes encompassing our plans, our contradictions, failings, and hopes.  

I keep thinking of a line from the 2004 novel Gilead by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson, a story about how wisdom was forged and lives on in generations. The narrator is the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition and then, at age fifty, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle. Here’s what he said about the trials, turmoils and tribulations of his life: “I am confident I will find great blessing in this.” And that is what he said about everything that happened to him for the rest of his days.

Practical Tip: The School of Hard Knocks is not an easy place to get an education but the lessons learned might help us to overcome, perhaps even thrive in what Life throws our way. Guaranteed!

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Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team

Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts

Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music

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