I believe Blue Star Equiculture to be the future for animals in our world, and also a model for how people can be treated and work together in a world that desperately needs us to get along. If we cannot heal ourselves, we cannot heal the world.
Pamela Moshimer Rickenbach, our very great friend and one of the founders of Blue Star, is coming to the Bedlam Farm Open House on Columbus Day Weekend (Saturday And Sunday, 11 to 4 p.m.) along with two draft horses, a trailer and some of the now famous Blue Star kids and volunteers and staff.
Two gorgeous big work horses, Merlin and Foxy will be coming her too (I think the donkeys will melt down) and be available to people to see, touch and learn about. Visitors can also buy some wonderful art, watch me herd sheep with Fate and Red, meet Chloe, our donkeys, and also hear some poetry read, listen to some singing and songs and hear about the work Maria and I are doing in our lives and on the farm.
We want to share our fortunate lives with you, and Pamela is a very special part of our lives. Hopefully, we will take a minute or two to remember our friend Paul Moshimer, who took his own life a few months ago, he will be honored and missed. But Blue Star’s great work goes on, and then some.
At Blue Star, animals are loved and understood and cared for, Blue Star is about keeping working animals in our every day lives and also remembering to treat the people who live with them and love them well also. This is the future of animals – finding work for them, keeping them among us, treating them lovingly and well, remembering that we cannot love animals if we do not love the people who live with them, care for them and work with them.
This is the Blue Star idea, the new way, the future of animals, their true rights.
Pope Francis reminds us that Mother Earth, our sister, “cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.”
Blue Star is very important to us, and to anyone who loves animals and cares about our planet. It speaks to us of harmony and hope and community and encouragement, the horses remind us that we are at a crossroads, and we will either live in harmony with one another or perish together. Blue Star is the best place I have seen to learn those lessons and understand the solutions. Pamela will be available to talk to us about that very urgent and powerful idea. Please consider helping them if you can.
Pamela isn’t certain who is coming, but she says some of the Blue Star kids – Brian, Zoe, and perhaps even Mithra – will be here. That would be great.
This Open House promises to be very special. More than nine artists, including Maria, will present and sell their very wonderful work in her studio, some great animals eager to meet you. Chloe loves apples and carrots, so do Lulu and Fanny, Flo the barn cat is likely to crawl in your lap Fate is eager to jump on you against orders, and will gaze meaningfully into your eyes if you are still. And now, thanks to Pamela, two gorgeous big draft horses to grace our farm. There will be lots to do, lots to see, including the progress Fate is making working with the sheep. I’m always happy to talk about that. Details on Maria’s website.