I lucked out with my friend and neighbor Jack Macmillan. He lives just down the road and I have called him many times this year. When the path to the outer pasture flooded. When the tires on my mower went flat. When I ran over a garden house last week and gummed up the mower blade. Jack comes and helps with crowd control at our Open Houses, he advises me on granting hunting rights, he gave us a peach tree, we have dinner almost every week with Jack and his wife Kim, who works with Maria making scarves and potholders.
Jack was the County Transportation Director for many years and he knows stuff and one of the things he knows is how to run a tractor. We are having water and draining problems in the Pole Barn, the ground slopes down and when it rains or snows, water comes pouring in to the space where the animals go to seek shelter. I had a truckload of dirt delivered and Jack showed up with his tractor to bring the dirt into the Pole Barn.
This is the time of year when I am thinking winter. The light is beginning to turn, the grass is browning, the nights getting cool. We have enough firewood, Nelson Green say she has square bales of hay for us, and Jack is helping us get the Pole Barn ready for some snow and ice. A farm is like a chessboard to me, moves and counter moves. Having friends and neighbors like Kim and Jack is a very good move.
We got up early to a thick fog, the sun just beginning to break through. We have a lot of dirt that is going into the Pole Barn to hopefully ease the flow of water into the barn when it rains. My friend Jack Macmillian is here with his tractor, he handles it like a maestro in front of an orchestra.
I had a good morning yesterday, and then set out into the world. I ran into a man there who didn’t like one of my books, he was offended because he didn’t like something I wrote and wouldn’t speak to me. I said hello and he refused to answer or acknowledge me. I asked him if he wanted to talk to me about anything, and he said nothing. I came home and got an e-mail from a woman scolding me for not writing about my divorce sooner, as Paula, my ex-wife, was loyally married to me for 30 years and obviously loved me very much, she wrote. I got a call from a Bedlam Farm neighbor saying one of the men who lived down the hill had been racing his four-wheeler on the farm path for weeks and was busy building a path to a neighboring property so he could ride longer distances. He never asked permission or spoke to me about it and when he was told that we have a family moving in, he got a lot of attitude about it and said he ought to have permission to ride on my property. He rides his four wheeler at very high speeds through deep woods.
All three of these things happened within a few minutes of each other and I remembered several of my spiritual counselors talking to me about the “Laws Of Attraction,” which hold that good energy attracts good energy and bad energy attracts bad energy. You draw what you think, one counselor told me there was no doubt about it, it was proven science. This got me to wondering if I had drawn this minor unpleasantness to me in some way, one of my counselors told me if you get into an accident or hit a telephone pole or get sick, it’s your fault, because you have been thinking negative thoughts.
Yesterday I was actually thinking quite positive thoughts. I was loving my wife, my dogs, my animals, my blog and my work. I was taking good photos. I was getting a steady flow of subscriptions to my blog. Why, I wondered, should I feel guilty because my path crossed with some Soul Suckers. A good friend of mine is suffering greatly, her daughter has vanished into a cult and she is terribly worried about her. Is she to blame for this because her thoughts were sometimes negative or angry? Several people on the Open Group are grappling with cancer, are they to blame for getting sick?
I am a writer, and I am especially sensitive to notions of mind control – of monitoring and censoring every thought. It is the antithesis of creativity for me.
For me, notions like the Laws of Attraction are another way of making people feel badly about themselves and denying the reality of life. Life happens to all of us, we will all run into jerks, tick people off, encounter thoughtless neighbors, worry about our kids. We will all get sick and die, it is the one universal truth. We cannot swim in a pure sea of love and peace. For me, the question is how do I get back to a good place, how do I reset myself, how do I stay centered in a world filled with angry and broken and sometimes thoughtless people? I think of my minor irritations even as we talk about making war once more, and what are my concerns in the face of that? That is the daily spiritual path, the daily practice. Our minds will go where they will, where they ought, life will hunt us down and find us no matter how big our farms, how deep and peaceful our paths to the woods.
The challenge of a meaningful life is not whether bad things happen, but how we accept and deal with them. I love every day of my life. I love my wife. I love my work. I love to write. I walk my dogs. I write a blog. I take a photo. I do some good. I seek out the good and loving people, the Soul Savers, the nourishing people, I listen for the good news, I find the points of color and light in the world. I speak my truth. I love my friends.
Maria thought it would be good to offer a photograph or two for sale for those who can’t make it to the Open House this Sunday. II think it’s a great idea and we chose this one, “Route 313, Two Barns,” which is matted for a 16 x 20 inch frame. The photo is printed on high-quality archival paper and is not framed. This is offered for sale to people who can’t make it Sunday, which seems fair. The photograph is signed and can be purchased for $175 plus shipping. If you are interested, please contact Maria at [email protected] or through her website.
The Open House looks promising, good weather. Maria has a studio full of great art to sell, the donkeys are ready to receive visitors, Red will do some sheepherding demos, and I will also do a demonstration on how I am training Red for therapy work. We are also setting up a table to show some of the great work of the Open House At Bedlam Farm creative arts group. Should be great fun.
We cannot offer refreshments or restroom facilities, but those are nearby. For those who can’t make it, there will be photos and videos and let Maria know if you want the photo. There is only one for sale before the Open House, four or five for sale there.
