More than 90 per cent of Americans now live on one or the other coasts of our country. Economists have condemned rural life as inefficient in the global economy and more and more people are driven to cities to find work they don’t love to pay for health care they might need for wages that leave them struggling. This has meant, among other things, that most people are becoming disconnected from the natural world, and from the animal world. Animals are not part of our lives, they are relegated to zoos, preserves, videos on YouTube. I have lived with donkeys for more than a decade now, and am struck by how many people I meet that have never seen a donkey. A half-century ago, psychologists predicted that people pressured by technology, disappointed by politics and religion, disconnected from other people as lived more and more on screens, would turn to pets in an effort to heal themselves. I believe this is happening all around us.

I believe a life without a connection to animals or the natural world is a broken life, that animals are healing, calming, they teach us things and center us, make us whole. I work hard to bring animals into my life. Where it is possible, they shop with me, ride with me, walk with me and I am always astonished by how animals like donkeys and dogs, chickens and cats, read the rhythms of my life and enter into the spirit of my life. This morning, it is very windy and dark here, the sun darting in and out, one of those broody mornings that I love. I went out to the Adirondack chair to sit and meditate and Red and Lenore came out behind me. When I meditate, they both sit in front of the chair and are quite still. Sometimes a barn cat saunters through. Usually the chickens come walking through.

I closed my eyes and felt the wind brushing my face, that was my meditation, a stillness, an appreciation for my life. This is my news, these are the stories of my day. Animals have marked the passage of my life, given me work, helped me to heal and to grow. That was my meditation too, how much animals have brought me when I let them into my life, not as emotional puppets for me to exploit, not as spirits that save me, not as children or lovers or best friends or therapists, that is my work and the work of humans,  not theirs, but as companions, magical helpers, spirit creatures that enter my soul and compliment my life. I felt this power strongly in my windy meditation this morning, they were in the silence with me, they had entered my life. I am flattered and honored by their acceptance of me.