Rolling Lessons

Late this morning I looked down to the pasture, as I do periodically, to check on the horses.  Jackson was rolling on the hill between the barn and Kalvin's paddock.  Unfortunately, for him, he got stuck.  His head was facing downhill and his legs were uphill.  He couldn't get up.  He kept trying to hoist himself up, uphill, against gravity.  After a number of tries, he quit and just lay in the mud.  He looked resigned.  I know he can roll all the way over and it would have been easy to do since that would be rolling downhill.  But no, after resting awhile, he gathered all his equine strength and gave it another heave-ho.  Amazingly, he got himself up.  He stood there for a few minutes licking and chewing.  I'm sure he was telling the hill "okay, I give.  No more upside down rolling."

That got me thinking about how many times we get ourselves upside down and backwards on hills.  We struggle and struggle and still we stay stuck.  How much easier would it be to relax and just roll down hill a little.  Even if we have to admit defeat to the hill.  For me, that's the hard part.  I don't like being powerless, or stuck, or admitting defeat.