“Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it – and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo.” Wilna Mankiller
I've learnt a lot of lessons over the years, this one has, however been the most valuable one of them all. It was a random Monday on my way to work, and I clearly remember hearing the presenter asking on the radio, "What makes cows different from buffalo's?" I like facts like these, and my brain was at immediate attention to hear what it is that separates these two.
In a nutshell, when there is a storm approaching a cow will attempt to outrun it, while the buffalo faces it head on and in so doing gets through it much better than the cows who are attempting to outrun, or avoid it all together. You see, the cows are not fast enough to run away from it, and ultimately, the storm catches up with them eventually.
This single story, early on a random Monday, became how I've approached and overcome every hard thing that I've had to push myself through over the past year. I call them hard things as that's how I see them, and it's exactly what I've learned to tell myself every single time.
For a very long time, I was the cow. Avoiding anything that could potentially set off a panic attack. I was always on edge and ended up sacrificing so much. This story was like a wake-up call for me. My list of things that I could do was getting shorter and shorter, and that's when I realised that by 'trying to run away from it', it was following me into every aspect of my life.
There's so many stories and so many posts that I plan to write around my mental health journey. It actually all started many years ago on this very platform.
This story, however, would be how I would say I realised that I'm capable and brave enough to face that which petrifies me. I'll always be incredibly grateful that I was in the car that random Monday, and I hope that by sharing this story, it could possibly help someone else out as well.
When it's hard, always remember the buffalo!
Thank You for Reading 😀
With Love Always Justine ❤️
All Photo's Are My Own Unless
Sourced Otherwise lol 😆
Snapped with my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra.
PS this goat 🐐 is obviously very confused on the theory 🤣🤣🤣