The new gates on the Pole Barn that Ray Telford built in just a few hours this week are great big deal here at Bedlam Farm.
The gates we had are not permanent, every time we had the shearer or a vet come or a there is a sick sheep we had to haul these huge gates back and forth, the animals were eating them and pushing through them.
We have an Open House coming up in a couple of weeks, and lots of people come into the pasture to look at the sheep shearing. The gates were falling apart. During the 7th Open House, the sheep pushed right through the gate and it took an hour to round them up.
All of the solutions we considered were way too expensive. Ray just went and bought some lumber and brought his saw over and built these two new gates and put the other two on hinges. All four are being protected by thick chicken wire, they will no longer be snacks for the donkeys when they are bored.
Maria thought I was nuts, but I had this idea to paint the two new gates blue, and we had some blue stain in the basement. It took me about four hours to do the one on the left, and I’ll tackle the other one over the weekend.
I know this isn’t necessary, but I like color so I fought the flies and painted one gate blue. Red kept the sheep at bay. It’s strange to say, but farm people will understand how exciting this is, and how grateful we are to Ray. Gates and fences are a great big deal when you live with donkeys and sheep.
Things are heating up here for the Open House. Bud will be here.
Rachel Barlow will paint one of her wonderful oil paintings. Mary Kellogg is coming and I will read from her new book. Maria’s belly dancing class is coming to dance, and Red and I (and Fate, sort of) will be sheepherding. Several wonderful poets will be reading from their work, I’ll be talking about small dogs, and she sheep will be shorn.
Carol Gulley will be helping Maria keep track of sales in the Schoolhouse Studio.
Maria has assembled a knocked group of eight local artists and we will be celebrating the art and creativity of rural life. And guess what? We will have pole barn gates that just swing open and shut. And two of them are blue!
For the first time in many weeks, there was a chill in the air this morning, I put a sweatshirt on, Maria pulled her hood up. She also cuddled with Flo for a bit, I think she is going to spend a lot of time indoors this winter, I have the feeling she is losing some of her passion for the wild life.
Maria and the donkeys love to meditate with one another, they spend some time in contemplation every morning. Maria knows how to listen to the donkeys, and she knows how to talk to them. They are deeply spiritual creatures, they have lived and worked among people for thousands of years.
They know how to love us and fear us and ignore us. Their bond with Maria is very strong, you can almost reach out and touch it.
(I wrote in an earlier version that donkeys have been living with people longer than dogs. That is not accurate, dogs have been living and working with people longer than donkeys.)
I have never trusted or strangers who call me sweetheart, they seem inherently fake to me, a little slimy and this morning, a message from [email protected] helped me understand why:
“Sweetheart, you do not sponsor the soccer team–your so-called “Army of good” does. There is not a thing you do that you claim as an act of kindness (and often, strangely, Christianity) that doesn’t depend on other peoples’ money.” – [email protected].
Oscar Wilde wrote that a cynic is a person who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
Cynicism is the faith and currency of our times, and our political system. Social media is the cynic’s church, it has never been easier in all the history of the world to be cruel or sneer at others. George Carlin wrote that if you scratch the surface of a cynic, you will find a broken-hearted idealist. I think this is so.
I have so many flaws but I have no hatred in my heart for anyone, even people who send me messages like this. I wish what she wrote was true. I wish I had more money.
There are so many times when the soccer team or Mansion residents need something and there is no time to ask for help from the outside. Of course I spent my own money, and all the time.
I am shy about writing about those times, it seems self-serving, but I am well aware that there are people like aaefxc out there, sitting in the dark next to their computer screens or peering into their smart phones seething. I like to bring them out into the light. She is why I keep receipts, I have boxes full of them.
And I am obsessive about crediting the Army Of Good, as anyone who reads the blog will know. I even bought bumper stickers for them.
I mention them every time I wrote about our good works. They make all of this work.
But Ali has chosen me to be the sponsor of the Albany Warriors Soccer Team and I am proud and happy to have that title. And I take it seriously, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. I am even happier to have the Army Of Good behind me, we’ve bought a lot of soccer balls and shoes. I doubt that aaexc got that far.
Ali is a good man, there is not a drop of the cynic in him. He is the anti-cynic, perhaps a reason it is so good to work with him. Even he mentions the Army Of Good in every video.
I have spent a lot of my money along with the Army Of Good, contributions often come up short, although I could never come close to doing what I do without the support of these people, so I suppose in a sense she is right (and why do I know this is a she?
I do think these works are acts of kindness, and I do evoke Christianity for sure.
Last week, I was reading the spiritual author Henry Nouwen about forgiveness, he was writing about Christ on the cross. It is said that a person’s final words are often taken to have particular significance, even if you are not considered to be the son of God. Christ asked for forgiveness for his betrayers and murderers.
I am no Christ.
I am sadly not that evolved, but I’ve always leaned towards the more earthly St. Francis, who advised us to become friends with the angels. The deeds you do may be the only sermon some person will hear today, he wrote.
He who works with his hands is a laborer, he wrote, “he who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman, he who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
And what is he or she who uses a computer to send out false and poisonous messages to the world?
A cynic would be the nicest term.
I am a cynic, and have always been a cynic, and so in aaefxc, I recognize a fellow cynic, a disappointed human. It is hard sometimes not to look through the world through a veil of poison and suspicion. We are disappointed and betrayed so often, that is part of being human.
it is often hard for to imagine that anyone – from St. Francis to Mandela Mother Teresa – weren’t calculating or self-serving in their good words.
And you know what. They probably were to one degree or another?
I have always known the work I do is selfish – I do it because it makes me feel good and helps me to heal and keeps me from writing messages to people like aaefxc does.
Like every other bad thing, cynicism is an opportunity. When we rise above our anger and suspicion with the intent to reveal light and bring it into the world, positive energy envelops us and spreads out into the world. Is isn’t about falling down, it’s about getting up.
Some years ago, about 15, I began my Hero Journey, it began with my gradual abandonment of the familiar and my descent into the unknown. I did not know here at the time, but Maria began her hero journey at the same time.
Tonight, I felt the call to read about the Hero Journey from Joseph Campbell’s wonderful book, Pathway To Bliss, in the chapter titled The Self As Hero. I dedicate this reading to Maria, and also to myself. We both survived.
I feel the need to somehow commemorate this journey, it changed my life. I believe it changed Maria’s as well.
Audio, My reading of the Hero Journey as described by Joseph Campbell:
