While we were dealing with our sick ewe yesterday, I almost failed to notice that Minnie and Flo were back on their respective back porch rocking chairs for the first time since Minnie lost her leg nearly a month ago. Life goes on, and on. Death in the barn, a return to life on the porch. I called Darryl Kuehne, our friend and Vermont sheep and cattle farmer and he is bringing a gentle ram over in a couple of weeks, we will breed our four ewes, there will be lambs in the pasture next Spring, another renewal in the cycle of loss and gain, birth and death.
The animals have all moved on, the sheep and donkeys and donkeys are not thinking of the ewe that died, they are eager for food and attention. So be it. I am too.
We were sad yesterday – I wanted to cry looking at the photos I took yesterday, images are powerful, it is so rare to be able to capture the emotion and power of death – but life has it’s own ideas about things. I have to work on my Ted Talk today (going to NY Friday and Saturday for it) and “Second Chance Dog” is coming out next week, Maria is working hard for her Plaid Friday sale – we would both dearly love to stick it to the big retailers who have stolen the meaning of Thanksgiving with their Black Friday.
So one ewe dies, a ram is on the way (with another ewe also). The farm is a wonderful teacher, it pulls you along, Tess may have died, but the animals need to be fed and watered, the dogs walked and fed, e-mail answered. Life is not one thing, but many things, including death. Everyone reading this will lose someone or something this year or next, that is our destiny as human beings, and unlike the animals, we know what death is and we know that we will die. In the meantime, I wish to live.