Border collies herd with their eyes as much as their body but Red didn’t seem to want to stare this crew of fascinated Alpacas down in Vermont. They couldn’t get enough of him. In a few minutes, he would have been in their laps, getting snuggled. Photo album going up on Facebook.
Maria and I drove to the Vermont Fiber Mill Works in Brandon, Vt. to drop off the wool that she is selling from her sheep in the Spring as yarn (more on her website). Red hopped out of the car and walked smack into a flock of curious Alpacas, and he went immediately into his herding crouch, and then simply stared at them, as astonished by them as they were by him. This standoff went on for ten minutes or so, and it was pretty fun to watch this serious and purposeful worker trying to figure out if these were sheep or not. The alpacas were not especially impressed by him but they were very interested in him.
He was happy to go into the farm office and find some new girlfriends to cuddle with, which he did. More photos later.
Red and Simon are not pals. Simon has tried to stomp, bite or kick Red more times than I can count. Red ignores or avoids him, but there have been a few close scrapes and I usually don’t let them near one another. This morning, we were out in the pasture and Simon came up to check Red out. Red, as always when he is working, is not distractable, even at the cost of his life. He just watched the sheep as Simon came up and sniffed him carefully, checking him out from head to toe. I don’t see a friendship here, but this is different. We’ll see. Animals never cease to surprise me. A number of people have suggested that Simon is grumpy lately because he isn’t getting enough attention.
To me, this is a human projection of human emotions. Simon gets plenty of attention every day, from me, from Maria and from his many admirers. I think this sniffing of Red might suggest a change in mood.
Ben came over yesterday with a gift. He found eight cornices in the old barn and he took them home and scraped and sanded and painted them and put them on our back porch as a thank you. It took a lot of work and craftsmanship to do that. He is loving his Kindle Fire and book of Randall Knives. He’s off on other restoration work tomorrow. He’ll be back, of course. Thanks, Ben.
When the soul awakens, the search begins, and there is no turning back, no looking back. From then on, you are on fire, and the world is suddenly ablaze with light and love and glory. When the soul awakens, you will sing a different song, speak in a different language, and the sleeping souls will not hear you, understand you, and you cannot hear or understand them. Their news and anger and ritual is a babble, a mystical tongue, a distant roar. You will live your life outside of the tent, listening to the sounds of the circus.
When the soul awakens, your heart is filled with longing, and poems dance in your head, rise up inside of you list mist in the meadow. Love can find you. You are on the spiritual path.
When the soul awakens, you are filled with longing, even as the world loves power and possessions. And suddenly you see, it becomes clear, that if you do not have love, you are the poorest of the poor and true safety and peace will run from you like the rabbit from the fox. Your life will be a riddle, never to be solved.
And the riddle is this: If you have all the money in the world, and did your duty, and followed all of the rules and precautions of the angry men, and listened to all of their warnings and alerts and take all of their tests, and have all of the things they tell you that you need to be safe and wise secure, then why are you miserable and lost? And why are you not happy? And why are you not peaceful and secure? And why can you never have enough? And why is there never enough?
When the soul awakens, and you wrap yourself around the warmth that only a lover can give, then you find a peace and safety beyond the imagination of the shouting politicians and the grasping bankers and the small people living shrinking worlds, looking for likes, bristling with rage at unfulfilled lives.
When the soul awakens, our generous spirits come to life, and you awaken to the mystical power of love and love and help yourself and love and help those around us.
When the soul awakens, the search begins. And it can never end, only catch a different train to eternity.
