Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Good Morning

Here's Maria, winning friends, and influencing chickens.

On this visit with our wee farm, I remarked to Maria that she was clever for naming the three Cuckoo Marans "Thompson," "Thomson," and "Tamsyn." We couldn't tell them apart! But they're changing, and exhibiting some unique and distinguishing features, and we may be close to giving them truly individual names. One of the Cuckoos has a comb that is very tall, and flops over a bit, and we can readily tell her apart from the others, so she'll get her own name. Then there's the Cuckoo with a comb that is comparatively small, compact, and she needs a name, too. The hen with a comb that is in between in size, and very pert and peaked, we are calling Emma. Emma Thompson.

This is all very pressing and highly consequential data. I hope you are taking notes for the quiz.

There's Emma Thompson, in front of Maria, facing the other hens. Write that down.

Also highly significant and of great interest: I finally have a picture that satisfies my obsessive need to demonstrate how tiny Lucky Penny is compared to the new chicas. It's comical, because as petite as she is, she still shows them that she's a boss. And they pay attention, too!

We happen to live in an area with more yoga studios than Starbucks... that's a lot of yoga! Because all around us there are juice bars, holistic healthcare practitioners, mindful surfers, and the enlightening effects of living in close proximity to the Pacific ocean, I've had this assumption about myself... that I should know what meditation is and how to do it. Given this fact of geography, how can I escape the practice of this fundamental skill? Meditation is recommended, advised, suggested, and celebrated wherever I go, but I have not managed to get a genuine handle on what it really is, and the very little I've read about it... about the practice of mediation, and the nuts and bolts of sinking down and really getting into the zone... yeah... it has always led me to assume that anything that "tuned in, quiet, and still" is what I call a "nap." And I do love a nap. Delicious, I say.

Is it wrong to enjoy not knowing? Honestly, I am okay with the time when I simply wonder, when a concise answer is not within reach, and I can speculate, and even be happy with a mystery that is not unraveled. For today, until I find that tidy paragraph that defines and illuminates what is "meditation," I will suppose that to mediate is to sit with the chickens and goats, to listen to them, and see what they do, to stop thinking for some purpose, and simply observe. Watching the bunnies, following the chickens, I slow down, and get a moment to be satisfied. I wanted to say "in the moment," or "content," and I wonder if there's a good way of expressing that state, when even if we are harried and stressed, or hurting, or if we only have five minutes, we still just manage to take a deeper breath, smile, appreciate, recognize something that gives us calm, joy? Funny how such a small engagement, something so easy to oversee or dismiss, can make a difference... a good difference.

4 comments:

judy in ky said...

I can so relate to being "in the moment" and content when spending quiet moments with friendly "critters". It's so simple and satisfying to spend time with them. I'm not expert but I think it must be as renewing and refreshing as meditating. I did take a meditation class one time and found it very relaxing just to free my mind from worries and take deep breaths. Sometimes I do it when I'm stuck in traffic or sitting at a long red light.

Anna Banana said...

Your SF friends need to go east, neither of those birds would likely be found near the coast per Peterson's guide. (But birds don't read, so I suppose it's possible.) People who are not from here don't readily comprehend that San Diego is as big as Connecticut and has 4 climate zones. They might find these birds in desert San Diego, but probably not anywhere else. Hope you keep in touch with them and let us know!

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Hopefully they will drop by Chickenblog and let us know what luck they've had!

Natalie, the Chickenblogger said...

Deep breathes can make all the difference.