In the morning, when we wake up, Maria and I talk to one another, ask about our dreams, check on the other. Sometimes we have bad nights, we are both prone to evil spirits coming in the dark. We have been helping each other with that since we have known each other.

I have had some awful nights, especially around the time when we first met. I remember lying on the bathroom floor in Austin, Tex. during a book tour, sweating and shaking and too dizzy and nauseous to stand up. I called Maria and she talked me down for much of the night. She is always there for me, I am always there for her.

I feel good when the first light strikes, the old fears and dreams recede, and that is when the animals listen for us.

We still have some of those bad nights, as many people do, but they are so much more peaceful and brighter. I don’t like to think of those other days. When we wake now, the animals out in the pasture hear us, horses and donkeys have astonishing hearing, as do dogs.

They come and gather at the gate and stare at the house the second they hear us talk. They know when we come downstairs, they know when we turn the shower on in the bathroom, they know when we are getting dressed and gather at the door with the dogs. That is when they get excited, we hear braying and whinnying and baaahing.

They are scholars of the people who feed them and of their schedules.

Animals live by their stomachs in so many ways, they are very aware of food, who brings it, where it comes from. Chloe is the most impatient, she paws and stomps a bit, we are training her not to do that, she is settling down. But she does get excited, sometimes she races Maria to the feeder.

Morning is a turning time for us, the time between night a  day, between dreams and wakefulness, sometimes between fear and hope. Our day also really beings with feeding time, we come back to the farmhouse, eat breakfast together, walk in the woods and plunge into our separate work days.

Life is a rich tapestry, it is not linear, it is never a straight line. That is hard to get used to, hard to accept. The animals know it, I think they are trying to teach this to us.