"It’s getting to be early evening now, and about time for me to get up from the computer, having made some progress on the pages you just read. Years ago I got myself out of the busy city and set up my family here, on a little spread outside town, with a picture of [[Oliver Sacks]] and his “No!” sign hanging above my desk. **Now that my writing day is done, I’ve got work to do on the farm—chickens to feed, some donkeys to sneak carrots to, and fences to inspect. Not unlike the plot of that [[zen]] poem about the taming of the bull, my neighbor’s longhorn has gotten onto my property, and I need to go find him**. "My young son helps me load some tools into the back of the ATV—“the tractor, the twahktor!” he calls it—and then I hug him and head down the levee, through to the middle pasture, and back down by the creek. The fence there has started to weaken, from the elements and the explorations of the wayward bull, and I spend the next hour grabbing and pinching T-post clips. You take the clip and wrap it around the back of the post, grab the end with the pliers, hooking it over the wire and twisting it tight so it can’t come loose. Wrap, grab, hook, twist. Wrap, grab, hook, twist. " "No thinking, just doing. "The sweat gets going quickly in Texas, and my leather gloves are shades darker almost as soon as I start. But by the end the fence is tight. I tell myself it will hold—or so I hope. Next up is moving the hay, backing the buggy up to the round bale, letting the arm fall over top of it, and then gunning the engine of the ATV. It catches, teeters, flips up, and falls over, two thousand pounds of food now lying flat on the trailer. By the time I’ve driven to where I need to drop it, the cows have gotten wise to the sound and come running to investigate. I line it up with the hay ring, back up again, and watch it come tumbling off the back. With the knife in my pocket, I cut off the netting and drop the heavy steel hay ring over it to prevent waste. The cows begin to eat, yelling in appreciation, jostling with each other for their place at the bale. "With them properly distracted, **it’s time for me to go find this bull**. I heard him when I was working and suspect he’s over in the back corner of the front pasture. I find him there, a ton or more of muscle and horns. **I’m a little frustrated. This is not my problem**, though my neighbor seems not to mind that this keeps happening. I behold him there, as the poem says, but keep my distance. Not just because I don’t want to be gored, **but because in rushing this process before, in getting him worked up, I’ve run the bull right through a barbed-wire fence—a costly reminder of the risks of impatience**. "**The key is to nudge him in the direction you want to go, to eliminate the other options and then get him moving. It’s got to feel like it’s his idea. Otherwise, he’ll panic and get angry. And the problem goes from bad to worse**. "So I just stand there, resting against some cedar, looking up at the first croppings of the Violet Crown—the Texas sunset that settles over Austin—that is coming toward the horizon. **In this moment, I am at peace**. It doesn’t matter how tough things have been lately. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the world. My breathing is slowing down. There is no social media here. The outrage factory that has become the news cycle can’t reach me. Neither can my clients or business partners—there’s no reception in these woods. I am far from this manuscript I have been working on. Far from my research and my notes, from my comfortable office and the craft that I love. And here, far from my work, the story of [[Shawn Green]], which I read months ago, and what he was really teaching us slips from my subconscious into the front of my mind. I get it now. **I get what he was after**. "Chop wood, carry water. Fix fences, load hay, seize the bull. "**My mind is empty. My heart is full. My body is busy**. "Attamen tranquillus. --- Holiday, Ryan. Stillness is the Key: An Ancient Strategy for Modern Life (The Way, the Enemy and the Key) (pp. 258-260). Profile. Kindle Edition. " **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[momento-mori]], [[influence]], [[patience]], [[discipline]], [[exercise]], [[personal-values]], [[character]], **Source** -- [[202409180133 - B - Stillness is the Key]]