We made a few minor corrections to the sizing of the heading, “BedlamFarm.com” and that wraps up the re-design process for the website. I got hundreds of comments on the new design, and I estimate that 90 or 95 per cent were positive. People wanted the photo to be large, as I did, and they liked the clean, uncluttered and simplified design. People like the boxes on top that would guide them quickly, and from one page to Book Tours, Facebook, Videos, Photos and Maria’s website. There were pleas to keep the Izzy-inspired border collie up top, but I decided to put that away for now.
Some though the design was commercial, but I don’t know any commercial sites that remotely look like that, and I am not selling anything, so I’m not sure what that means. Others felt the new design should have more a farm feel and look. But I think the photos will set the done, which will sometimes be farm, sometimes dogs, donkeys, or sometimes things I haven’t imagined yet. Some people just get nervous about change, and I understand that. I am committed to thoughtful and deliberate change, and I think this new site is that. So thanks again. We are done noodling now. All that remains is for me to pay for the site – it is very reasonable but not cheap – and to maintain it well and with commitment. I am grateful and pleased that so many people care so much about it.
I’ve learned relatively late in life to look beyond mainstream institutions – organized religion, medicine, conventional notions about animals – to find truth and connection and a meaningful way to exist in a world I am in many ways disconnecting from.
I see a naturopath I can talk to honestly and comfortably about my health. I see myself becoming healthier through the care of a chiropractor, massage therapist, and a spiritual counselor. I am learning from all of them, even though most exist outside of mainstream notions of health care, media, conventional wisdom, insurance and science.
I notice that these disciplines are not corrupted by money, suffocated by regulation, dependent on the political system, overwhelmed by systems that force too many people to see them too often, force them to make unhealthy decisions, and treat them in ways that are often influenced by profit. Since they don’t make a lot of money, they are not corrupted by it. Since they can’t afford big and antiseptic offices with lots of technology, they exist on second-floors, the refurbished corners of old factories. Their offices are quiet. They have time to talk to me, to listen to me. They believe in my body, in giving it a chance to heal and be healthy, and they permit me to live in dignity, free of fear, and in ways that have greatly enhanced my health and understanding of health. I’ve long been afraid to talk to medical doctors, because their response has always been the same – take some pills, get some tests. That will not be my life. I am never afraid to talk to my health care providers and so we talk about my body in ways not imaginable to me before.
. How much is that worth?
The people worth listening to are rarely on TV, never hired as commentators, analysts or tenured professors. They live, like me, on the fringes of life. Our culture teaches orthodoxy in all things. To get on TV, you have to be left or right, and being angry and declarative helps. The people I love to see, the most thoughtful and interesting people, will never be on TV.
In this context, I’ve been talking to Animal Communicator Jeannie Lindheim for more than a month. She is, like all of the others, outside any conventional system of health care or veterinary care. She charges little or nothing, and no insurance pays for her. Many people roll their eyes at the very mention of her. She exists on the fringes of common understanding and many people ask me if I believe in her, trust her.
The answer is yes, I do. She is not into dazzling me with revelation about my animals, rather she helps me understand them. She is a telepath, and communicates with animals in ways I don’t understand, which does not mean they are false. It just means I can’t do it, and don’t understand it. She is plain-speaking, warm and direct, easy for me to talk to. In the four sessions we have had, she has helped me understand my animals. To see Frieda as the wild and free spirit of a dog she is; to accept the stage of life Rose is in, rather than trying to medicate her out of it; to understand better the nature of Izzy’s hospice work, and on a lighter note, to name my contemplative hen Toots, the Zen Hen. She taps into a perspective, rather than looking for circus tricks. Does she know things she should not know? I think she knows things she should know and that are helpful for me to know.
Jeannie, I sense, does not take herself as seriously as others take her. She often quotes the animals as saying things humans get excited about “are no big deal.” That is the way I feel about animal communicating. It is a good deal, not that big of a deal. I would recommend her comfortably to anyone.
And in the larger context of my life, I understand better every day that wisdom, like health, often comes out on the edges of life, not the center. I am beginning to learn who to listen to, who to go to. And if it is often a lonely and frightening process – there is little support for it – it is rewarding beyond imagination.
Lulu stands watch, and so does Rose. The two centurions watch over our morning chores, a working dog and a working donkey. And now, chickens walk alongside. Come and see.
Plaid potholders being readied for Maria’s Plaid Friday sale, this Friday, beginning at ll a.m. Details on her website.
I’ll be on the phone at Battenkill Books, Friday, from ll a.m. to 1 p.m. 518 677-2515 ready to talk to anyone buying a book from Connie at Battenkill Books. I’ll help take orders, which are coming in daily. We are hoping to sell another 100 books this week,and 200 more by New Year’s. I love the idea of Plaid Friday, , the humanist response to our new national greed holiday, Black Friday. Plaid Friday exists to celebrate independent business and individuality. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the corporate ethos damage publishing, ruin media and culture, and gradually destroy or erode small business and community. Our economists, politicians and business leaders have decreed that individual enterprise is inefficient in the global economy, so they are destroying jobs and pharmacies and family doctors and lawyers and farmers and rural life and shipping viable jobs overseas, all in the name of modernity. Nuts to that. The other way was better.
Friday, I’m voting for community, individuals and independent businesses.
Border Collies are not great at resting (neither am I), but Izzy and Rose love to doze and wait from their perch. Rose loves this antique chair and Izzy likes to lie underneath it and the two wait there until I move, or Maria moves, or something catches their attention and the scramble off. Photos of border collies resting are rare, but this one was irresistible. A friend gave me this sheepskin for Rose to lie on (we are protecting the chair.)
