The image you see below is one I took several years ago while on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic.
What you obviously can’t see is the sad story behind the image and the lesson it teaches.
We were working in a small village up in the mountains.
On the first day we arrived we stopped at a small church that served as our dormitories for the week we were there.
We were instructed to get our bunks set up and then walk up the hill about the distance of two or three blocks to a home for dinner.
As we walked up the hill we saw this mare and were told that her foal had just been born a few hours earlier.
The owner of the two horses had a very small hut that served as his home just to the right of the horses.
Each morning and evening meal had us walking up the hill for our meals and past the horses.
It didn’t take much of a brain to notice there was very little bond between the mare and her foal and rarely did we see the foal even standing up. Most of the time she was as you see her in the picture. Neither horse was much more than skin and bones.
One morning as we walked up someone asked our Dominican guide what the situation was with the farmer and the horses.
She said that this was a difficult dilemma that played itself out every day in the DR.
The mare was so weak that she couldn’t produce milk for the foal. The farmer had very little money. He needed to choose to buy food for the mare or formula for the foal.
He knew if he chose food for the mare she wouldn’t produce milk soon enough for the foal and if he chose formula for the foal he would most likely lose the mare to malnutrition.
A difficult decision to be sure!
One morning as we walked up the hill to breakfast we noticed the foal was no longer there. We were told that he had passed away during the night.
Our guide told us the mare probably wouldn’t last much longer either because the farmer made no decision in what he should do and didn’t buy nutrition for either of the horses.
We offered to help but the lady told us that if we helped him get both horses healthy he wouldn’t have the finances to care for two horses anyway and the same thing would happen just a little bit later.
What are the difficult decisions you are facing today?
Are they in your personal life or your business life or both?
What is it costing you to not make a decision today?
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS day!
What a story! Thank you for sharing.
I have spent some in my life contemplating what not making a decision produces. I remember Scott as a very little guy, maybe 4 or so, sitting in the middle of the stairs and not wanting to move up or down. I told him that if he did not decide which way to go, I would decide for him.
I think too often we forget that if we don’t make a decision, we really are making one; We are deciding to let someone/thing else make the decision for us.
Thinking about decisions in that light has helped me to consider my thought process, and the opportunity costs of certain decisions, and has helped me to move forward.
However, sometimes I think it is right to not own the decision and practice patience. I have been pleasantly surprised how not owning a decision can work out with the least conflict and often a very good answer.
Sometimes decisions are painful, no matter what the decision is, as may have been the farmer’s thought in your story. In that case, I may have let nature decide as well.
Thanks for your time, Dave. Say Hi to Amy,
Cindy
Thank you for reading and commenting, Cindy! You are absolutely correct in that not making a decision is making a decision. Unfortunately, all too often not deciding or waiting to decide has a greater price. Thanks for sharing Scott’s story as well. We make decisions every day but some of them are so much harder than others!