Day: September 6, 2016

If I want to be spiritual, then let me first of all live my life. Those who are not grateful, wrote Thomas Merton, soon will complain of everything.

If I can’t be alone, then I can’t know or understand myself, and no one can know or understand me. If I can’t be in silence, then I can’t know the meaning of contemplation. I will never be able to think.

If I can’t find sanctuary and relief from words, and news, and hate and fear and argument, then I will lead a hollow life, my head filled with distractions.

In the woods, we often walk in silence, the dogs waiting for one or the other if we fall behind. We hold hands, listen to the sounds of the forest, feel the life force of the trees. It is a sacred place for us, a sanctuary, but I know one doesn’t have to go to the woods to find sanctuary. I find it in a chair in the living room at dusk, out in the pasture with the donkeys, up in my bedroom in the middle of the night. If I want to be spiritual, I must first of all live my life and learn to be alone with myself.

We cleaned and patched up the old Sand Springs Ginger Ale box we found buried in the old barn, and I persuaded Maria to bring it into the living room, we put it up on the mantle above the fireplace. The fun part for me – you too, perhaps – will be to watch Maria do her thing with all of the squares and spaces, it is a perfect gallery for her trinkets, tokens, bones, rocks, etc..

I never see her do it, but the farmhouse is a living gallery, it changes daily. This is a perfect vehicle for her.

We put it up last night and this morning, when I came downstairs, she was already working her magic. There was a small portrit of Frida Kahlo, a rock, a skull we found somewhere in the woods, a container with some of Rose’s ashes. I put our brass griffin up on top. Can’t wait to see this new gallery take shape, and I will share the joy with you.

Today marks a return to videos for me on the farm, I’ve been so absorbed with photography I haven’t focused on the moving image enough. Today a brief video showing Fate’s great joy in running and being around the sheep, even if she is unable or unwilling to move or challenge them. We are at peace with this and so are they. Red keeps an eye on things, even if he is slowing down.

I’m planning on doing more short videos, and hope they bring another dimension to the sharing of our lives here. Maria’s Monday Morning At Bedlam Farm videos have become very popular, and it’s good to be reminded of the importance of the moving image as well as the still.