KINDNESS

I am getting a late start and not for any particular reason. I have been sitting here musing about this and that. Jamie has been going through our books and selecting and boxing those to donate. We have boxes of books on organic gardening and raising livestock the small homestead way. I forgot how dedicated we were to learning how to live off the land. We did for several years.

We went through several periods where we were lacking in what most folks take for granted. We had no running water, we heated our water and cooked on a wood range. We had a pump a few feet from our door and a privy a little further away.

Most of the time our life was unhurried and rather elegant. Jamie created the elegance and she was a genius at creating a masterpiece out of what may have been rather unpleasant. We lit our house with kerosene lamps and candles. We usually had enough money for kerosene.

One day we had company. We were out of kerosene and had no candles. During the afternoon we sat at the dining room table and talked. While Jamie was talking she was also dipping string [wicking] in melted wax. We melted down the used candle stubs and added a little paraffin. As the evening wore on and the light became murky, Jamie had made six candles which were lit. We didn't miss a beat. The company hardly realized what had just happened. Thanks to Jamie's ingenuity our evening turned out great. I have many stories about our life living without the usual resources. Perhaps I will write a book.

Going through the books invited me to muse about the past but I also mused about the present and our struggle here on Earth to be the people we want to be. I have been focusing on being love in every moment. However, one could also focus on being kind in every moment. Isn't kindness love in action? Are not kindness and love inseparable? It may be easier for some folks to focus on being kind in every moment. Love can be abstraction. It can remain in the mind as a wish for the best without having an obvious action. At least that is what I am thinking at this moment. I will think of kindness and love as being the faces of the same coin. I think that will help me.

I mowed most of the lawn yesterday. It was the highest I have ever seen it. It looks nice although I have to take the weed whip around the flower gardens. I need to get out there now as it is clouding up and it may rain. I don't want to put off the little mowing I have left. [I call it little but what I have left is the lawn size in some suburbs]. We have a big lawn. Much of it is orchard and I have contemplated adding it to the adjacent pasture, however I haven't had much success in protecting the trees from the sheep. I have had sheep ignore apple trees for weeks and then go after them ravenously. I know it can be done. Most sheep are not good at reaching high and if the tree is mature enough only the bark needs protecting. In most cases sheep won't eat bark, but I had one that would. He acted like a goat. Now goats are a different story. I would never have the temerity to think I could protect an apple tree from a goat.

I got to wind this up and get out on my mowing machine.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

CELEBRATE!

Love and Peace, Gregg