Day: June 18, 2013

TIn art, literature and spiritual history, the donkey has always been linked to human beings in the Theater Of Chance. They carried Jesus into Jerusalem, brought Napoleon over the Alps, carried Queen Victoria and traveled with Sancho Panza on his journey through Spain. No animal comes close to the rich spiritual history of these creatures.

Yet so little is known about them, so few people have met them. I have been studying the Dao of the donkey for years now, they have been a part of my life since I came to my farm, a bigger part since Simon arrived near death. I’m writing a book about Simon, Red and Rocky and it includes a history of the donkeys, I have been researching it for months.

When I think of donkeys, I think of these traits: intelligence, curiosity, independence, loyalty and a capacity for hard work. They are hardy creatures, requiring little care (hay in the winter, water and farrier). They love to explore rough and brush-filled terrain. They powerfully attach to people, but like a cat, on their terms. They are not eager to please, they do not respond instantly to commands, every idea has to be theirs, or they are not likely to do it, or not likely to do it right away.

Like all animals, they love who feeds them. They are more intuitive than most dogs I have known, they can read intentions and moods from a half-mile away. If you bring them carrots at the gate at 7 a.m., they are likely to be there braying every day for the rest of their life and yours. They are scholars of food, and know when you walk into the kitchen of your home, no matter how far away. They can be trained to pull carts, haul wood, give rides, pull plows. They are smarter and easier to work with than horses, or so I am told. They are guard animals, they keep coyotes and stray dogs out of the pasture. They love to be brushed, talked to, read to and sung too. They are one of the few animals with a sense of humor. They seem to grasp the ridiculous nature of human beings and get a chuckle out of us.

Oh yes, they have big soft warm noses.

I took my first Tai-Chi lesson since I got sick last week, and wanted to go on the eve of our one-day trip to New York City to see the movie “Hannah Arendt,” playing for short showings in several cities in the coming weeks. Movies like that can no longer get into the big cinemas, another gift from the corporate Leviathans that have gobbled up our culture as well as our work. Scott and Red have a particular connection, Red just has this gift of entering whatever space he is in, whatever space I am in.  Not that many people get down on the floor and talk to him, though.

I am liking Tai-Chi, it is not simple for me to learn. Breathing is important, there are lots of movements that require precision and memory, and my head is a distractable space that does not retain too many specific things. I had so much trouble in school all my life I am fairly certain I have one or another of those much discussed learning disabilities. I just don’t absorb things in the normal way. And my body has not quite returned to normal, Lyme is a disease that keeps on ticking. Scott is a patient teacher and we are getting to know one another. I took a video of the first four movements today with my Iphone and that will help as he will be away next week. I’d like to do 20 minutes in the morning, another 20 minutes at night, sometimes it is hard to find that time.

I’ve got the broad outines of the first movements down, it is flowing more easily and naturally. I have a ways to go. I am eager to pursue it.

I can see the rewards to Tai-Chi, in our world it is just critical that we find ways of unplugging ourselves from the fragmentation, data, bad news and notifications of the outside world. It helps me already with focus and balance, I think it helps me recover from my encounter with Lyme Disease last week.  From dog-walking to meditation, people are awakening to the importance of finding time and space for their own thoughts, their own peace of mind. I know I have. Scott is a busy man with lots of interests, but he finds time for Tai-Chi and other elements of spiritual practice. I think this becomes more important every day.

Some friends asked me to come over and take photographs of a naming ceremony for their two grandchildren. I love doing photo assignments like that, it is a creative challenge – have to figure out the light and the lenses – but it is also a wonderful affirmation of photography. Assignments like that take you out of yourself and your normal comfort zone, they are a wonderful use of photography. They are affirmations of life, the big stories that will never make their news, but which bring light and love and meaning to our news. Once, journalists knew that, now they think stories only happen in the offices of Washington bureaucrats and in bloody and violent conflicts.

The setting was simple, they were planting two trees on a hillside, one for each daughter, and a minister read from some beautiful Celtic poems.

There is pressure in an assignment like this – you don’t want to disappoint, you won’t get a second chance.  The lighting was bad, the line of sight clouded with trees and cars. And it is a nice gift for friends who have done a lot for me. They also remind me of something else. There is a skill to photography, all photographs are not the same, if you are open to feeling, you can capture the feeling in front of you. I conducted a naming ceremony once, long ago, for two children that were lost to me, and I did try and picture them there, just for a moment, but it was not about me, it was about someone else’s children, and  it lifted my heart to see this one, so full of life and connection.

Vintage hanky scarves, from fullmoonfiberart.

Our back porch has taken on a life of its own. My wife is a compulsive planter, and Flo and the chickens have formed a porch condo association of their own. Minnie joins in when the sun is out. There is no dislodging them, it is their porch now, we will have to find another one.