Wind in the Skeleton Leaves

Yesterday I saw a quote online that said "When was the last time you did something for the first time?"  It's been a while.  So what did I do today?  I did something new....wait for it.....I sat on a new place on the fence.   Yeah I know, profound.  I sat up there and found my self just watching the chickens scratch in the leaves sending billows of them into the air to be whisked away be the wind.  I saw one chicken find a bug and then all the other hens start chasing her.  It was funny, so I laughed.  Then I hear it.  Nothing.  It was so quiet.  I listened to the silence and slowly heard the noises of my life.  The quiet chortling of roosters wooing their hens, the quiet bleating of goats, the wind.  The horses came up to me.  I scratched Scooters head, he turned around and I scratched his hindquarters.  Swinging my leg over him I eased myself onto his back.  

Have you ever just "chilled" on a horse?  No riding, nothing?  I love it, I could sleep up there.  So I laid down on his back, pressing my cheek against his neck.  Tangling my fingers in his mane, my red hair mingling with his.  I listened some more to the beautiful quiet.  A single snow flake drifted down and landed an inch from my nose on Scooter's shoulder.  I studied it's delicate structure, and listened some more.    

I realized why I had lost my love of farming.  I'd gotten too caught up in the stress, the marketing, the business, the chores, the repairs, the deaths.  I forgot about the simple pleasure these animals bring me.  Like wrapping my arms around the swollen belly of a doe, pressing her soft fur, feeling for the movement of a baby or two or three growing inside her.  The everything that made me want to have animals in the first place.  

I realized God gave me them for a reason. To receive a small measure of peace and sanity from them.  For when life becomes too discouraging, when earthly love is hard to find, the words get too hurtful, the pain too intense, and I'm tired, so tired of being strong.  All I need to do is listen, listen to His voice calling in the sound of the breath from powerful equine lungs, the light trickling of water, and the rustle of wind through the skeleton leaves.