I’m training my chickens.
They are outstanding at tearing things apart and leaving poops everywhere. I’d prefer if they did this in my massive compost pile.
I hatched a plan. Step one: Get a couple of chickens and put them in the compost. Step two: Create a bunch of little stairs and ramps up to the edge of the compost so the chickens can find their way in. Step three: Wait for the chickens to escape their enclosure. Step 4: Direct the chickens to the stairs, ramps and other apparatus. Step 5: Omelet.
I began by cornering Salmon and Ella one at a time and carrying them over to the compost heap. They purred and clucked happily as they ripped and tore into the layers of horse manure, hay and kitchen scraps. They ate wasps, pepper seeds, watermelon bits and egg shells.
The others watched jealously from their enclosure. Chickens have a short attention span. They also have a short decision making process. One look at how busy their sisters were was enough to convince the other three to hop the fence and enjoy the greener grass on the other side of it.
The chickens could see that their sisters knew better. They surrounded the heap. They circled and they looked, but they couldn’t get in. Their sisters had better.
For a moment, the other chickens wanted better too.
For a moment, they strained their necks and gawked, looking for their way in. I set up steps and ramps and all sorts of ways for the chickens to find their way up into the delicious, insect rich compost.
I tried to ‘teach’ the chickens to ‘use’ the stairs and ramps that I created.
Most of the time they were confused then got distracted. Food was everywhere. Though their sisters in the compost had ‘better’, these ladies still had plenty.
In fact, food was so abundant it was easy for the chickens to get distracted by good enough while they were on their way to better.
People get described as sheep really frequently. Apparently that has something to do with being easy to lead.
Having spent the last while attempting to get people to pay for a spot on an epic bike ride, I gotta say, things would be much easier with sheep. Buy a crook and borrow a dog to scare them and I’m pretty certain that I could get them moving in one direction or the other.
But people are more like chickens. Sure we might know that there’s better out there. We might even see our siblings enjoying bounties beyond our wildest dreams.
It’s easy to set goals. We set them all of the time - goals and plans that we hope will get us to better.
And?
If you scratch the ground and find a worm where you are?
Maybe better isn’t where you need to go.
Maybe you can find abundance right here and right now.
Get scratching, you clucking fools!
