Sunday, May 06, 2007

 

A Week of Magic!


This past week here at Refuge Farms has been like most weeks in the Spring of the year – frantic! We have begun the yard work – always a tough one after the winter season – and we have readied the barns for the Summer traffic and we have located and retrieved hay and we have prepared for and hosted events and we have held our Staff Meetings and we have created mountains of paperwork and we have the pond filled and the fountain running and Donna’s swing is outside and the birdbaths are readied for the birds and …. Oh, heavens! I get overwhelmed at the list of what we’ve done!

But yesterday, we took five hours out of a frantic schedule and did our very best to perform our Missions. We took our herd of rejected horses and offered them to some very remarkable women from around the world. We shared the things most precious to us. We shared the horses and ourselves. We shared THE FARM.

Yes, yesterday Refuge Farms hosted women from Kenya and Ethiopia and Puerto Rico and other countries from across the world. Women who now live in our neighboring state and had an interest in spending time with us. The initiative of one of The ‘Other’ Herd resulted in this kinship visit. We are organizations of similar missions – missions of protection and healing. Remarkable!

The women of THE FARM who were their hosts were equally as remarkable as the guests – considerate, interested, humorous (as always), and willing to share what they had personally found here. The Sisterhood, one of them called it. The Fellowship, another one said. “I come back for the friends I now have here.” Remarkable!

Part of the afternoon we spent eating, of course! And then we moved to the barns. Our Josephina and Unit and Blaise and Cole were as generous with us as they always are. Willing to allow strange hands to touch or to brush. Willing to let strange faces hug them and tell them they are beautiful.

And on this day, for the first time, our Beauty was a part of the barn. Still with a stall around her, but a part of the event, just the same. And what a lover she is! That huge black shiny head of hers easily comes over the top of the gates and pleads with us to pet her. Slow we must be! No sudden movements or noises! And then when Beauty desires another part of her remarkable body brushed, she simple turns that side to the gates and grants us – no, allows us – to touch her. A Human Being is touching Beauty and Beauty is not retreating or defending herself. Remarkable!

And of course I just had to show off our Addie-Girl! Coming to us a mere few weeks ago, this young lady is filling out and developing quite a personality! She holds her head high! And she talks to me when I am late with her meal! And she lifts her feet to trot with me! If she had wings she would fly with me! Oh, how remarkable!

Here is Addie-Girl upon arrival. I know it’s a tough picture. It’s the type of picture I typically do not show the public. She looks rough and sore and so, so thin. Her ribs, her hips, and even her spine were right under her skin.


But I show you that “old” Addie-Girl so that you can now rejoice with me in the picture of Addie-Girl at her one month mark! Here she is on her one-month anniversary:

Look how high she holds her head! How interested she is in the world around her! Look at the shiny jet black hair coming in on her shoulders! Look at the fine, fine layer over her ribs and shoulders! Look at her! Remarkable!

Fun with the horses. Telling horse stories. Time for brushing and petting. Time to wander the Memory Beds and tell more stories. Time to visit Big Jim and Miss Bonita. Time to talk of love, true love.

We ended the afternoon by sharing desserts and more talk. Laughter. And we formed a line for the hugs. Sincere hugs of now friends. Big waves so long, since we did not say good-bye. Promises to return. And invitations to come again. Please!

We, as hosts, enjoyed the afternoon as much as our guests. We relaxed and shared and truly reaped some of the Magic of THE FARM ourselves. In a way, we were our own guests. And it felt good. It was a remarkable afternoon.

I sit here at the start of our sixth season at Refuge Farms. Six years of worrying about the paperwork and the legalities and the liabilities and the weather. Six years of caring for the special needs of The Herd. Six years of struggling to somehow make ends at least come close, if not meet. Six years of smiling and greeting the new ones. And six years of crying and grieving and putting the crossed ones to rest. And six years of meeting strangers and making friends. Six years. Remarkable!

And so on this windy and cold Spring Day, I ponder all of this and the things in my heart. And I have another silent conversation with Andy. “How are we doing, Andy? Do you like what you see? Is it what you had in mind when you gave me that challenge? Me, neither! But Andy, do you see what we have become? Can you feel the impacts and changes that occur? Are you proud? Are you pleased to see us grow? Do you see the difference we are making, Andy? Sure do wish you were here to hug. And Frannie, too. Oh, how glorious he would be by now! But Andy, do you see Addie-Girl? Do you see her coming along? Do you see how shiny she will be? Love you, Andy. Miss you, too. Stay close by me. Please. And thank you, my dear friend, for changing my life. For giving me the Sisterhood and the Fellowship and the Missions. Because of you, my life is remarkable!”

Enjoy the journey of each and every day,
Sandy and The Herd



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