Donkeys are wise and intuitive animals. Once a day, I go out to the pasture gate where they stand to get out of the sun, and I just be with them.
I love their silhouettes, I never tire of photographing them. Donkeys have seen a lot and know a lot. They don’t get rattled as humans do. They don’t, I think, dwell on the past or worry about the future.
They know us, they have lived and worked with us for many thousands of years. Nothing we do surprises them or gets them to change their view of the world.
I think of them as very Zen creatures. These days, they are worth their weight in gold. They accept life as it is, and follow their routines every day. My donkeys know me, they see right into me, they grasp every mood and nuance in my soul.
My donkeys and I talk all the time. Just not in words. If I bring a carrot, they appreciate it. If I don’t, they accept it. I sometimes think they laugh at foolish humans, who waste so much of their lives in argument and worry.
When I am angry or upset, I go outside and think like a donkey, I get grounded very quickly.
Do you ever sing the song Donkey Riding to them?
Nope
Hi Jon. Your relationship with your donkeys reminds me of Wendell Berry’s poem, “The Peace of Wild Things.” Your donkeys “do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.”
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Nice, Dawn thanks.