This I Believe

The dry air was making my lips crack. Wishing I had brought some lip balm I paused and leaned on the handle of the shovel. As I looked up I could see the few remaining rocks stacked in the entrance of the cliff cave. Evidence of a forgotten dwelling. Someone else had lived in this landscape. Had it been a young girl like me working in this valley? I sat down in the red dirt with my feet in the shade of the two-foot hole I’d just finished. What would she have planted here? Most likely corn, from the evidence in the cave. What would she have thought of these pear, peach, and apple trees? I wondered if she had also longed for a cool drink in the hot afternoon sun.

It was during those dry southwestern summer days that I did most of my daydreaming, my story writing, and life planning. Through June, July, and into August, I dug the 2′ x 2′ holes for $2 a hole to plant fruit trees. With the sun burning the metal barrette in my hair, I crafted stories about Anasazi women climbing cliffs to reach the surrounding plateau. I imagined them coming back to visit me and created stories of time travel.

I didn’t recognize it then, when my muscles were sore and tired and my mind racing with creativity, but I was learning to do hard things. As I scanned the horizon hoping for a cloud and imagining my future filled with easy living, I didn’t know that I was really making my emotional, physical, and creative muscles that much stronger. I couldn’t see the changes taking place, but the hard things were making me stronger.

Years later I can see that I was given a gift. The time and space to dream and the ability to accomplish hard things. It’s made me a believer in doing hard things. Things that take you out of easy living. Things that challenge your physical strength. Things that stretch your emotional capabilities.

Now when I think I can’t take anymore, think I’ve given all I can, I pause and remember the results that come when you put your whiny self aside and do the hard work. Hiding doesn’t make it go away. Complaining doesn’t make it easier. But you will get stronger as you face it down, push through it, keep going.

I believe it’s the hard things that help us become, someone more interesting, someone with some scars, bigger muscles, and more courage for the future.