For me, an iconic image, one of hope and promise. Our flock, newly energized, is together in our pasture, the rain brought up some good green grass. The pony loved her fly mask. We are pondering another sheep in need of a home, a white Romney – “she is a mess” we are told and thinking about whether we can help her. It’s really up to Maria, I will support whatever she wants to do, it is her wool to raise and sell.

Taking Izzy in felt good, especially this week. A sign there. I have my choices to make. I can look at the darkness or the light, I can see the good or the bad, I can lament or be hopeful, I can see only one narrow slice of life, as awful as it is, or I can remember the totality of being human in all of its glory.

Almost all of us tomorrow, billions of us, will be going peacefully about the business of life – looking for love and life, seeking meaning, struggling for wisdom and survival, yearning for meaning, seeking community. This is the work, the holy spark, it will never end for me, not while I can think and break.

The sheep whisper, life goes on. And on.