Maria and the donkeys have provided me with a powerful laboratory and inspiration for my “Talking To Animals” project and I’m sharing this message with my backers on Kickstarter and I wanted to share it with you also – some of you are my backers on Kickstarter! Donkeys are extraordinarily intuitive and sensitive animals, and Maria is an extraordinarily intuitive human being, here emotions are close to the surface.
She and I – and the donkeys – do not communicate much in words, that is a key to talking with them, they do not have words, they do not understand most of ours any more than dogs do. This morning offered another clear example of my beliefs and observations. We came out to the pasture just after sunrise, it was raining last night, then turned colder in the early morning. The donkeys had been out in the rain, which had frozen on their coats.
Simon and Lulu and Fanny saw us come into the pasture and their demeanor was unusual, they came right up to us and pressed close against us, they were not looking for food, they were not braying in excitement. They seemed anxious, uncomfortable.
“He wants you to brush his coat or rub it,” I said, “he wants you to get the ice off.” That made sense to me, Simon was coming to people he trusted to get comfortable. He pressed his forehead against Maria’s stomach, he was offering himself to her, he was seeking comfort and attention. He was not doing this with words, but with instincts, he trusts us and we have both often made him more comfortable, beginning with when he was in such dire physical condition.
Maria, for her part, was still and accepting. She spoke softly and soothingly to him, and he stood absolutely still while she rubbed and loosened his matted coat and brushed the ice off of it. It seemed clear to me he was seeking some kind of help, his body language and approach were unusual, quite direct. Once we cleaned him up, he walked over to the hay feeder, he was done with us. That is important to accept also, Simon does not exist to make us feel cozy and loved.
Talking to animals is important, learning to understand them is important. “Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty,” wrote Albert Einstein. That is what this morning felt like. If you are comfortable doing so, support my “Talking To Animals Project” here, we are close to funding it fully.