Simple Gifts...Squirrels, buzzards and a stray cat

Simple gifts... Squirrels, buzzards and stray cats

I walked down to the stables, crunchy white frost underfoot, to the sound of old Ferd’s soft moo. He was ready for breakfast. Bud the Barn Cat met me, twining around my legs as I put his food out. Junie B nickered, Dixie snorted and the donkeys whined because I wasn’t moving fast enough to suit them. After the stable tenants were tended to, I headed down to the cows in the Kubota.
A flotilla of buzzards floated overhead on their way to the landfill. Their formation flies over the farm in the morning on their way to work and in the evening on their way home to roost. An addled squirrel ran in front of the Kubota and served as my escort all the way down the hill. The cows were gathered around the feed trough waiting for me. Our new bull, Little Ferd, stood apart from the crowd. I am trying to gentle him. When I put the feed in the trough, I walk around the cows patting each of them. Little Ferd will let me pat his rump now but not his head yet. On the way back up the hill, a stranger cat, solid black, jumps in the brush with a mouse in his mouth. He has been hanging around for a week or so. We are not sure if he belongs to a neighbor or is a stray.
At the top of the hill, I look back at the mountains and valleys beyond. Clouds separate the mountains leaving them floating, disembodied peaks rising from the white mist. I turn the key off and sit in silence for a minute watching the new day come into being.
And so my day begins with a psalm of praise for addled squirrels, buzzards, stray cats and a new bull. I sing along with the neighs, moos, meows and crow caws in joyful thanksgiving for this most amazing gift of another day of life at Sabbath Rest Farm. We are all waiting on New Light to come in the midst of winter darkness.