HOW CAN WE HELP?

The day before yesterday, I was able to water my chickens and sheep using the hose. No more carrying water this year. That is a big event on Laughing Water Farm. Summer rules are much kinder on this old man.

The snow is now in patches and piles and I can roam around the farm at will. This Morning I set up the benches and chairs in the sheep pasture. The sheep had turned them all over and they have been completely covered with snow for four months. This is a place where I like to pause and meditate during my chores. The benches are set where the pasture slopes down to a tree covered low spot containing a pond that was dug fifty years or so ago. It faces East so the warmth of the rising Sun bathes one with peace and the feeling that all is well with the world.

Jamie and I have been contemplating what we should do with our pastures. The sheep pasture has been in continuous use for over a hundred years. It seems like it would be too useful to let it convert to woods. Our goat pasture was cropland until twenty years ago when we converted it to pasture. We have another area that we let go back to woods beginning back in the late seventies. It has been a delight and an education to watch Nature take back the land. We just have twenty acres. The sheep pasture is about seven acres. The goat pasture about five. We have a small garden patch. I mow about two acres of yard area and orchard, the rest is evolving into woods.

We have been slowing down our homesteading operation of late. I sold my turkeys and my geese. We are not planning on raising milk goats. Currently we have about thirty laying hens [old fashioned breeds], six sheep and one goat. We will have a flock of chickens as long as I breathe. The main reason we have sheep is to keep the pastures in good condition.

So as I live out my eightieth year on planet Earth how do I want to proceed? Part of me would like to take on more animals, have a bigger garden, produce more etc. However, when I get up and walk around, I realize, hey, I'm not 35 anymore or 45 or 55. I am getting to be an old codger. Hard to believe, I know.

So the question I ask myself and all of you, how can we be of help? How can we be of service to humanity? Everything we are now doing needs to change. Corporate agriculture is slowly poisoning us and the rest of the planet. Corporate industry is raping and destroying the Earth chasing money and power. Our medical field has been captured by capitalistic greed. I don't want to go on. We all know that society has to take an about face and seek health and wealth for all of its citizens.

We are One and all of us have a gift, that when it is expressed will bring peace, joy and well being to the rest of us. We all know in our hearts how we can best contribute to the well being of all. We need to think about that, now. It is time.

We can surmise what we need. Our cities and towns need to be surrounded by organic gardens. We need medical people willing to break out of the capitalistic model and return to the art of healing. We need an education system dedicated to raising folks up to be free beings who know their autonomy. We need visionary planners who can see how humanity can live at one with nature.

Most of all, we need reeducation. We need to learn to give up many cherished ideas of looking at the world. We need to accept the fact that our vision has been shaped and molded to continue the creation of the world we now realize we don't want. What does a world created by love look like?

My conjecture is, some events are going to happen which will shock us and rip the scales from our eyes. We will have to face how manipulated and controlled we have been. Those of us who have made themselves ready will need to minister to the rest.

I have envisioned groups of people coming together to make healing centers, with the goal of relearning how to live on the Earth in a sane and respectful manner. We have so much to learn about who we are and why we are here. We have been stark raving mad for a long, long time.

So I sit here today, wondering, how can I help?

Love and Peace,  Gregg