Good Medicine

A farm is good medicine - the perfect elixir to soothe the soul.

On the best of days it is a tincture of the purest ingredients: one part tranquility, two parts nature with a liberal sprinkling of magic and hope.

It's not a life for everyone, for it requires a constitution of grit, perseverance, and resilience; not to mention a whole lot of physical labor.  But the rewards are more than you could imagine. 

There are days, thankfully rare days,  where calamity reigns.  But then there are those days when everything is as it should be- when all is right in this little corner of the world- and I feel the deepest sense of satisfaction imaginable.

As I've said so often:  we cannot truly enjoy the calm and quiet days if we don't also experience the storms.  Good and bad come hand in hand.  This is life.  

And so it is, here on the farm.  We ride out the storm that Sunday brought to us and emerge in dazzling sunshine by Tuesday... and if you have been following along with our story, you know that it is not the weather about which I am referring.

There are days when I choose to go out for chores by myself... to completely immerse myself in the world of my animals.  I spend a little extra time doing all that I can for them, and as I work I drink in the peace and calm of my world.  It is my medicine, the analgesic for anything that pains me.  (It's no secret that 2020 has given us all a lot of pain!)

Taking care of others (and in this case my animals) keeps me out of my head and in the present moment.  Being outside in the cold winter wind allows me to fill my lungs with a freshness rarely felt at any other time of year.  As I work, I observe all that is around me:

How the wind blows the soft clouds across the clear sky like wooly wisps blow across the sheep yard.

How the sun produces an aura of sparkling brightness in the soft layer of cashmere on the goats' backs.

And just how enthusiastically the chickens and turkeys enjoy salad scraps and the peanuts that ended up on yesterday's floor.  We try to waste nothing... to the chickens' benefit.

The runner ducks busily count their steps as they scurry to and fro... always besting the 10,000 step goal.

Most importantly, the dry lot has returned to normal. 

 Moonie has joined his family and carefully navigates the familiar footing.   I doubt that his herd suspects a thing.  

Today everything is normal... albeit a new normal.  But then, new normals is what this year has been about.  We can weather these storms.  We can look forward to the sunny days.  We can live new normals.

WE are resilient, too!