Newton's Laws of Self Help

I don’t think I’m one for mantras. Not in general anyway. I’m getting to the point where I maybe just don’t need to be good enough, or smart enough, or convince myself that even (gulp) people like me. But there is a little mantra that has been useful lately. It has nothing to do with self help directly, but more to do with when you are up on a ladder trying to secure a greenhouse end wall panel, and you drop your &$^^#** screw! Down it goes, into the long grass. By GOLLY! I just wanna curse… ya know?! But I don’t! Because this is a perfect opportunity for my little mantra! It’s simple. You just squint your eyes in anger, and then tell that anger “Hey, there…Anger. Hi. I see you. I acknowledge you. I know you feel the world is cruel, but I have something to tell you. It’s just Physics. The world doesn’t hate you. Gravity just claimed that screw. It’s…Just…Physics.”

Maybe, perhaps, you might be out moving irrigation. It’s a little muddy at one end ‘cause the field has a gentle slope, and you left the irrigation running a couple hours longer than needed. You gotta get that irrigation moved, so you step into that mud, and it claims your boot with a sucking sound. You try to pull free, but instead you pitch forward face first into the soil slurry. You can almost hear the laugh track. As you are on your way down, you could either get mad, embarrassed, or feel like nothing has ever gone your way ever in your whole life which has all led up to this spectacular faceplant. But no. As your visage meets the mud, you can just say, “Oh Physics!! There you are again, you old dog you!! It’s just Physics!”

Or perhaps…there will be a rainy weekend, and hardly a soul ventures out to the farmers markets. Rain is a well known Newtonian force, who’s inertia steals motion from otherwise market going humans. As you sip your morning rainy day tea, wondering what to do on such a day, just know that we will be there, at the market, in the rain, with tables full of veggies for you hoping that you overcome the forces of nature, saying to ourselves…”It’s just Physics.”

I hope this year the Laws of Motion teams up with Lady Luck and everything goes swimmingly. But, in the case that they do not, I will have my mantra. If you want, you can use it too.