Difficult

“Because a thing seems difficult to you, do not think it is impossible for anyone to accomplish”~Marcus Aurelius

Magical Monday: A Mountain of Dirt

It's always a great idea to keep the front lawn looking tidy and to repair any problems. With this thought in mind, the owner of the house had delivered a dump truck full of topsoil in order to fill in two large holes created when two old tree stumps were removed.

The big, big mound of earth sat there dumped 200 feet away from these holes waiting for him to begin the process. This big, big mound of earth was not going to move itself and seemed overwhelming. A mound of earth that looked more like a mini-mountain than a pile of earth that would be a simple Saturday afternoon chore. Oh my goodness, why did he ever think that this hole filling, lawn repair project, was something he would be able to tackle?

What he had to remind himself was that what might at first appear as an overwhelming task, or something he couldn't see himself doing, would be resolved by simply taking one step at a time, or one action at a time, over and over again.

After staring at this pile of topsoil for ten minutes wondering whether he should hire someone to do what he just couldn't see himself doing, an old Chinese proverb came to his mind, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The translation of this proverb to the task at hand immediately became obvious. He needed to take one shovel at a time until a wheelbarrow was full, and then kept filling one wheelbarrow at a time and dumping it until one hole was full then simply repeated the process until both holes were finished.