Day: April 3, 2017

This morning, I began my day by ordering water color paints for $6.95 from the new Refugee Art Kit gift page, they will be shipped to Rachel Barlow. This is how I’m going to start my day for awhile, by doing good and feeling good.

I’m very happy to share the news that Rachel Barlow, the creative whiz who came up with the idea of creativity and art kits for refugee children has opened up an Amazon Art Kit Gift Page, (ship to draw.paint.create) just like the very successful one we used for refugee families a couple of months ago. This is the best, least expensive and most efficient way to help a very worth cause.

You can also donate cash contributions (see below.)

Rachel, an author, illustrator and painter from Vermont, has raised just under $900 so far in her very wonderful idea to make 90 art kits for refugee children and send them to the RISSE refugee and immigrant and support center in Albany, N.Y.  She needs $1,200 to make up the rest of the 90 kits.

There are a lot of recently-arrived refugee children in the area, and 90 of them attend day care and other support services on the second floor of a Methodist Church. They are doing valiant work and need help.

Many refugee children are struggling to adjust – to make friends, learn English, succeed in their classes. Art kits like the ones Rachel is making. You can support this idea by choosing which of the art kit elements you wish to donate, some are as inexpensive as $1.99, some are $25. The donations are sent to Rachel, who will assemble the kit, along with Maria and me.

I will bring them to Albany.

Rachel has already made more than 100 of these kits, they are an enormous success.

These kids are found by social workers to have an enormous impact on often traumatized refugee children struggling to acclimate, find their own voice and build their confidence. Rachel has also donated some of these kits to traumatized children living in foster care.

(Three boxes from the new page arrived on Saturday. We are close. Another victory for the Army Of Good.)

They permit these children to tell their own stories and they show the refugee children what America is really all about, we are a generous and welcoming people. They need to hear that now, and you can send that message for just a few dollars. Thanks so much for considering this. We are almost there.

If you prefer, you can donate any amount you wish through Paypal or major credit cards by going here.

Or you can choose your gift by going to the gift page here.

Even the border collies were stopped by the raging stream that has flooded much of the farm and put the stories Gulley Memorial Bridge under rushing water. We are cut off from our woods, at least until the waters recede. Red gave it a thought but then thought better of it.

The message for me was to stop and listen to the stream. I thought you might like to come along, it’s a lovely and quiet and calming meditation.

Emma took Robin out for the first ride on swings of her life, and Robin handled this with her usual smile and equanimity. Emma said she did try and eat the swings, but got past that and enjoyed the ride. Robin’s week is off to a great start,  I hope yours is too.

I have a video of it, but for some reason, it doesn’t want to load here today.

I got an inspiring message from Lynne this morning, she was a diplomat’s daughter, and since she lived abroad, she only saw her grandparents once every three or four years.  “My grandfather gave me my first experience of unconditional love,” she said, “I was his princess! His love was so very stabilizing in a constantly changing lifestyle and the loss of friends every time we moved.  In later years, my therapist commented “thank goodness for your grandfather.”

A grandparent’s love can be unique and special, as Lynne suggests. My grandmother gave me unconditional love and helped me get through some very dark days. I don’t think Robin will want for love or stability, but it would be wonderful if she remembered me in a similar way.

Nice note, lynne, thanks.

 

 

Maria has had a difficult time since returning from India. We both were surprised by her emotional and physical exhaustion, a heightened sense of vulnerability and anxiety. This weekend, she has been returning to herself, fun, feisty, teasing, intensely creative.

It has been difficult for her, and it has made me question whether I should go with her to India when she returns. I fear both of us being wrecked at the same time.

But we are different and we will have to wait and see. Maria had never taken a trip like that before, and it strained and challenged and stretched her. She did a lot of things she has never done before and saw a lot of things she had never seen before. She had many fears to overcome.

It is perfectly natural to be unsettled for awhile.

I am pleased to see she is coming out of it, she is strong and tough and determined, she has been there before, she knows what to do. She can take care of herself, something that was reinforced on her journey.

Maria is thrilled with this new quilt she made, it somehow marks her return. She calls it the Quiet And Gentle quilt, and I see what she means (notice the camel, bear and tiger she stitched into the middle).

I think it’s going on sale today for $425 plus shipping, but you can check her blog for the details. To me the quilt, so interesting and diverse – and so gentle – marks her return. She can laugh again, and she can laugh at me again, which she dearly loves to do. It is wonderful to have her back.

The India trip was rough, she will be processing it for a long time, as so many of you predicted. But for Maria, art and life are the same thing, and she processes one by processing the other. Welcome  to the Gentle and Quiet quilt.

Treasure Wilkinson texted us this photo of Chloe and her daughter Jessica riding bareback over the weekend at Chloe’s new home. It was thoughtful of Treasure to send it, it made us both very happy, especially Maria: “this is what I wanted,” she said. And I knew what she meant.

Instead of standing around all day eating grass and hay, Chloe has found a great home for her – other horses, work to do, people around all day all week to ride her, feed her, brush her and keep her active and loved. This story touches many chords for me. And Maria doesn’t have to feel guilty every day for not doing more with her, she is a spirited working animal.

For one thing, this is precisely why I wrote my next book Talking To Animals, it calls for a new and wider understanding of animals than many people now have. If you understand horses, you know this is a good thing for her. Think about this, those of you who are sad about Chloe. Why are you sad if Maria and I, and Chloe herself, are happy and content?

If the point is to understand what is best for them, and they get that, what is the point of the sadness?

Chloe’s story also reminds me of the New York Carriage Horse controversy, where people who say they love animals are certain that work for animals is cruel, and that the horses are “depressed” and lonely working in New York City.

In this way of looking at the world, animals are simply vehicles to be exploited so that we project our own troubles and fears onto them, and use them to feel better about themselves, even if it makes their lives worse. We need a better and wiser understanding of them than this. What matters is what’s best for Chloe, not us.

Many animal right activists in New York freely admit that they would rather see the horses dead than pulling light carriages in Central Park. This is not understanding the true nature of animals, it is condemning them to oblivion, extinction and almost certain death and slaughter while hypocritically claiming to love them and to be fighting for their rights.

More than 150,000 horses are sent to Canada and Mexico to be killed each year, mostly by having nails driven into their heads. Is this really a better fate for them than being loved and valued in Central Park? Is is really better for Chloe to spend her life standing by the gate dropping manure and waiting for something to do than being groomed and brushed daily, ridden often, in the company of other horses in a wide green pasture in between?

This is a question all of us who love animals must ask ourselves if there are to be any domesticated animals left in our lives and the world? What is best for them, not our ideas of them.

Every time a horse is ridden, they are also brushed and groomed, talked to and exercised, cleaned up again and given some treats. Most horses can’t wait to get back to the barn, but for a horse like Chloe, being cared for in this way is as important as a border collie getting to work. It is what they need to be content and healthy.

Animals are different from one another. Donkeys love to stand around, taking in the sun observing the world, amusing themselves by grazing and exploring. Sheep are similar. They feel easily into our lives, they have everything they need. Donkeys love attention once or twice a day, then they go off on their own, they love having their own lives. I like that also.

We have eased our own guilt and discomfort, but also give Chloe the life she was meant to have, given happiness to a number of people who will live with her, love her and ride her. I am not sure what there is to be sad about.

Thanks to Chloe, I am getting more excited about Talking to Animals, this is the point of it, understanding animals and helping them to survive in our world. You can pre-order it on the phone – 518 677 2515 or on the Battenkill Books website and get a free classy tote-bag. I will also personalize and sign any books ordered there. There are at least 400 tote-bags left.

In a sense, Chloe is what the book is all about.