My OperaAnimals, Hope, and Peace One Day
Sunday, November 26, 2006 2:10:44 PM
I love my garden, walking around in it, not only for the flowers and nature, but also because of all the lively, little creatures and animals living in it. Mostly shy, sometimes they show the courage to come closer.
Like the deer, when I was still living in my cabin in the woods. They used to come in the morning and evening and graze in the grassy open area close to my house. I loved watching them, from inside, for when I would go outside, and come close they would move to the field a bit further, or jump into the woods.
I learned because of them, to come home driving slowly, lights dimmed, in the woodland area and on the road close to my house. Not making loud noises, because I liked it, coming home in the afternoon, to see them graze on my terrain. When I came up driving fast, lights full on, they would jump away. But when I drove slowly, parked quietly and got out slowly, not slamming the door of the car, they would stay. Lovely that was.
I still drive slowly in the evenings and at night on country roads, because I want to be able to stop for animals crossing the road. Like when that young fox I saw that one night, sitting in the middle of the road, or that group of ducks, a father and a mother and 6 ducklings, crossing the road from one ditch to another. Killing animals sometimes cannot be avoided, but driving slowly at night on country roads is a simple way of preventing most of the accidents
Continuing about the animals coming closer:
Like that pigeon-couple last winter. They used to come to my patio every morning, landing on the roof first, making that lovely dove-sound, I began to like so much. Whenever I did my morning-meditations they used to come to sit on the chair on the patio, outside, while I was sitting inside on a chair, and every once in a while they would open their eyes, blinking a bit, to look at me, and I would open my eyes a bit, to look at them. I liked that peaceful meditation-time with 'my' doves very much. And they apparently liked it with me. Because even when there was food on my bird-feeding table, they sat there, so they didn't come solely for the food. They came because they liked being there.
Like that time when I was having my coffee outside, on the patio, when one of them came to sit on the empty chair, on the other side of the table. As long as I dit my getting up and sitting down quietly, the dove kept on sitting their peacefully.
They kept coming all winter, off and on, not every day, and off and on we would share nice moments together, in my meditation-time, or outside. Sometimes when I was working in the garden, and the feeding-table was empty, they would come to tell me that by walking around my feet, or in their 'making sounds', sitting on the roof of the garden-shed close by. I learned from them not to be too loud and fast in opening the door to go outside, or running around in the garden, and when coming around a corner to do that slowly, not to startle them off.
After the winter, in the spring, they stopped coming, and I missed them. And one day they surprised me in being back, with two grown-up young. The young were not as familiar with the garden and me, and they would fly away whenever they saw me, or heard something. The parents got nervous about that, and after a few mornings, they never came again.
There are other pigeons coming, but they are a lot more shy too. I don't blame them for not coming too close, for with people you never know. When I hear the gunshots in the woods in the hunting-season I understand their fear and shyness for people, it is a natural protection. Different than us people, nobody wants to eat us, they always have a chance too to be food for larger animals. So I understand their natural fear. But I have a wish that 'one day' the animals will not be afraid anymore for people, because they know, we will want to love them, instead of wanting to shoot, kill or eat them, and we will love to protect the natural environment for them. So they will be able to share this planet with us people. ..One day....
Peace One Day, with the animals too. This is a child's image, but I recall times from my childhood when I was really fond of animals, birds, insects, butterflies. Instead of forgetting about that fondness, I wish I would have found a way of keeping that child's love for animals with me, into adulthood. ( That's why I liked the movies 'Babe' and that one with Eddy Murphy so much. )
People who work with animals usually have kept that feeling of fondness. I guess I am lucky to find it back again in being a vegetarian, in enjoying my garden with all living creatures, enjoying the woods, the countryside, and the animals in it. Being a vegetarian helped me very much in that.
This cow, one of many in the meadow came running towards me last week on one of my walks. She really made contact, I was talking to her, and she posed for me. When I walked on, she kept on staying there for a while, and than went back to grazing. When after a while I returned home, walking past the meadow again, she came walking up to the fence again, I could see it was the same cow. And somehow, suddenly I felt a lot of gratitude for her, for all those animals, providing me, providing people, with cheese and milk. I don't use that a lot for food now, but I felt very thankful for her, and all the cows for all the food they gave me in the past.
A thankfulness coming from inside, making the heart glow, creating a smile, I shared with that cow.
Sometimes happiness is so simple.
.... While I am writing this, a lady-bird is crawling over my hand, and tickling me. She wants to play a part in the story. ( Better put her outside.) Happiness can be very simple, indeed....
Continuing about gratitude: I never eat eggs too. But last month when I stayed in a hotel, I ate an egg for breakfast. I remember eating it with enthusiasm again, enjoying it very much, actually in the same feeling of gratitude, I felt for the cows. Thankfulness for the chicken that laid the egg, for all the chickens, and for chickens as a species.
As a balance for the traditional US-celebration of thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude in writing about them now. In that way honouring them, for all their work for, and their gifts to mankind.
I love walking around in the country-side here, with the meadows, the fields, where sheep graze, and cows, and where horses rest. ( It is a contradiction though for a vegetarian, because if we wouldn't eat meat anymore, there would be no grazing animals, or at least less, if they were only kept for milk, wool, or eggs. But that is another story....)
I am also very fond of the herd of sheep on the moors here. And in writing this story now, I feel that something very significant has changed in me since I live in the country-side. Since I have been walking around here, I am experiencing in myself a growing feeling of peace and gratitude. For the animals, in watching them , in making pictures. I really like it, to be fond of the animals again, to have them in my garden, to communicate with them, and to feel the peace that comes from it.
HEDGEHOG beginning its evening-walk, coming from its nest of leaves
FROG HOPPING OUT OF A FLOWERPOT, after I startled it by pouring water over it, watering the plants. Next times I looked first.
A lot of little frogs from everywhere have been finding coolness and moist in my flowerpots in the heat of this summer. I had never noticed before that frogs do that. They used to hop over the patio in the evening. I had to ( successfully) keep the neighbour's cats away from them.
COWS AT SUNSET
.
SHEEP GRAZING
BIRD ON A PLATE.
( When I was in the US, one of the people in my street was driving around with a bumper-sticker on his car: "I love animals but not on my plate". So, this 'Bird on a plate' photo has become my vegetarian-statement. She is indeed sitting on a plate, even sitting on a fork, but this time not to be eaten, but to eat from the remains of my apple-pie. The other way around now.)
Back to thankfulness: That peace and gratitude, in communicating with, and supporting and loving nature and the animals, which was growing in me for the last decade, led to something significant. It has been guiding me, leading me into something special, and telling me something I was already 'knowing' on a very subconscious level, participating in it too, and now I am 'seeing' it more clearly:
There is definetely a new awareness growing in people. Mankind is waking up. Me included.
For last week I received a reward. At least I feel I was rewarded. And I celebrated. Because on 22-november-2006 something special happened. I didn't realise it until it was the next day, though..
In my country, The Netherlands, we had elections for a new parliament and a new government. One of the new political parties to participate was "The Party for Animals'. As they have been participating for the last decade.
And this time, for the first time in my life I felt so very sure, and supported in myself, in what to vote for. When I was driving in my car to the voting-location it felt as if all the cows and sheep I had been communicating with.... All of Nature I had become so fond of again.... All the species of the world in danger in their natural habitat disappearing. All the victims from the whole messy and and greedy animal-business.....name it all.. All the animals.... They were behind me, following me, pushing me forward, like they were saying:....." Hey! What about us?"
Wonderful that more people must have felt that. For the party ended up with 2 seats.
Ok. great. But 2 out of 150 isn't much, was the first thought that came up.
But when I saw the statistics in the papers, from my village, I saw that 283 people had voted the same as me. So, something suddenly shifted in me, and when I drove around later to go to the main-road, to town, I said to myself: "Hey, it is great, for there are more people living here, caring about the animals, concerned about how they are treated, and 282 of them live here, and have also been voting for them".
That felt so good.
Later when I read all the comments in the papers, some of them ridiculing the 2 seats, another thought came to my mind. I was thinking of a text I wrote a few months back. About starting with something new, and about success and achievement.
Peace One Day:
And this was certainly something new, and yes still small, with a small group of people willing to support a special vision. This was certainly something new beginning. Never been done before.
Only than I realised something important had happened:
History had been written. Because for the first time in mankind's history animals were represented in politics.
They have been given votes, and a voice.
Let's hope, a lot more people will begin to explore, and feel the care and compassion, the gratitude and thankfulness in their hearts, for the animals, world-wide.
In a peaceful way. For anger and violence. and fighting to get things shifted, is not what Mother Nature needs. is not what we need. We will need a lot of compassion, faith and endurance. Something that happened yesterday tells me that too:
For the last disappointing action of the sitting government, as nature is concerned, is allowing the hunt again in nature-reserves. Isn't that a sad action? But it shows the old will not be easy surrendered.
So, compassion, no anger. And let's stay hopeful. Let's be patient, responsible, wise, kind and loving, in doing something with that gratitude and love towards the animals, in expanding it, one day at a time.
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Like the deer, when I was still living in my cabin in the woods. They used to come in the morning and evening and graze in the grassy open area close to my house. I loved watching them, from inside, for when I would go outside, and come close they would move to the field a bit further, or jump into the woods.
I learned because of them, to come home driving slowly, lights dimmed, in the woodland area and on the road close to my house. Not making loud noises, because I liked it, coming home in the afternoon, to see them graze on my terrain. When I came up driving fast, lights full on, they would jump away. But when I drove slowly, parked quietly and got out slowly, not slamming the door of the car, they would stay. Lovely that was.
I still drive slowly in the evenings and at night on country roads, because I want to be able to stop for animals crossing the road. Like when that young fox I saw that one night, sitting in the middle of the road, or that group of ducks, a father and a mother and 6 ducklings, crossing the road from one ditch to another. Killing animals sometimes cannot be avoided, but driving slowly at night on country roads is a simple way of preventing most of the accidents
Continuing about the animals coming closer:
Like that pigeon-couple last winter. They used to come to my patio every morning, landing on the roof first, making that lovely dove-sound, I began to like so much. Whenever I did my morning-meditations they used to come to sit on the chair on the patio, outside, while I was sitting inside on a chair, and every once in a while they would open their eyes, blinking a bit, to look at me, and I would open my eyes a bit, to look at them. I liked that peaceful meditation-time with 'my' doves very much. And they apparently liked it with me. Because even when there was food on my bird-feeding table, they sat there, so they didn't come solely for the food. They came because they liked being there.
Like that time when I was having my coffee outside, on the patio, when one of them came to sit on the empty chair, on the other side of the table. As long as I dit my getting up and sitting down quietly, the dove kept on sitting their peacefully.
They kept coming all winter, off and on, not every day, and off and on we would share nice moments together, in my meditation-time, or outside. Sometimes when I was working in the garden, and the feeding-table was empty, they would come to tell me that by walking around my feet, or in their 'making sounds', sitting on the roof of the garden-shed close by. I learned from them not to be too loud and fast in opening the door to go outside, or running around in the garden, and when coming around a corner to do that slowly, not to startle them off.
After the winter, in the spring, they stopped coming, and I missed them. And one day they surprised me in being back, with two grown-up young. The young were not as familiar with the garden and me, and they would fly away whenever they saw me, or heard something. The parents got nervous about that, and after a few mornings, they never came again.
There are other pigeons coming, but they are a lot more shy too. I don't blame them for not coming too close, for with people you never know. When I hear the gunshots in the woods in the hunting-season I understand their fear and shyness for people, it is a natural protection. Different than us people, nobody wants to eat us, they always have a chance too to be food for larger animals. So I understand their natural fear. But I have a wish that 'one day' the animals will not be afraid anymore for people, because they know, we will want to love them, instead of wanting to shoot, kill or eat them, and we will love to protect the natural environment for them. So they will be able to share this planet with us people. ..One day....
Peace One Day, with the animals too. This is a child's image, but I recall times from my childhood when I was really fond of animals, birds, insects, butterflies. Instead of forgetting about that fondness, I wish I would have found a way of keeping that child's love for animals with me, into adulthood. ( That's why I liked the movies 'Babe' and that one with Eddy Murphy so much. )
People who work with animals usually have kept that feeling of fondness. I guess I am lucky to find it back again in being a vegetarian, in enjoying my garden with all living creatures, enjoying the woods, the countryside, and the animals in it. Being a vegetarian helped me very much in that.
This cow, one of many in the meadow came running towards me last week on one of my walks. She really made contact, I was talking to her, and she posed for me. When I walked on, she kept on staying there for a while, and than went back to grazing. When after a while I returned home, walking past the meadow again, she came walking up to the fence again, I could see it was the same cow. And somehow, suddenly I felt a lot of gratitude for her, for all those animals, providing me, providing people, with cheese and milk. I don't use that a lot for food now, but I felt very thankful for her, and all the cows for all the food they gave me in the past.
A thankfulness coming from inside, making the heart glow, creating a smile, I shared with that cow.
Sometimes happiness is so simple.
.... While I am writing this, a lady-bird is crawling over my hand, and tickling me. She wants to play a part in the story. ( Better put her outside.) Happiness can be very simple, indeed....
Continuing about gratitude: I never eat eggs too. But last month when I stayed in a hotel, I ate an egg for breakfast. I remember eating it with enthusiasm again, enjoying it very much, actually in the same feeling of gratitude, I felt for the cows. Thankfulness for the chicken that laid the egg, for all the chickens, and for chickens as a species.
As a balance for the traditional US-celebration of thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude in writing about them now. In that way honouring them, for all their work for, and their gifts to mankind.
I love walking around in the country-side here, with the meadows, the fields, where sheep graze, and cows, and where horses rest. ( It is a contradiction though for a vegetarian, because if we wouldn't eat meat anymore, there would be no grazing animals, or at least less, if they were only kept for milk, wool, or eggs. But that is another story....)
I am also very fond of the herd of sheep on the moors here. And in writing this story now, I feel that something very significant has changed in me since I live in the country-side. Since I have been walking around here, I am experiencing in myself a growing feeling of peace and gratitude. For the animals, in watching them , in making pictures. I really like it, to be fond of the animals again, to have them in my garden, to communicate with them, and to feel the peace that comes from it.
HEDGEHOG beginning its evening-walk, coming from its nest of leaves
FROG HOPPING OUT OF A FLOWERPOT, after I startled it by pouring water over it, watering the plants. Next times I looked first.
A lot of little frogs from everywhere have been finding coolness and moist in my flowerpots in the heat of this summer. I had never noticed before that frogs do that. They used to hop over the patio in the evening. I had to ( successfully) keep the neighbour's cats away from them.
COWS AT SUNSET
. SHEEP GRAZING
BIRD ON A PLATE.
( When I was in the US, one of the people in my street was driving around with a bumper-sticker on his car: "I love animals but not on my plate". So, this 'Bird on a plate' photo has become my vegetarian-statement. She is indeed sitting on a plate, even sitting on a fork, but this time not to be eaten, but to eat from the remains of my apple-pie. The other way around now.)
Back to thankfulness: That peace and gratitude, in communicating with, and supporting and loving nature and the animals, which was growing in me for the last decade, led to something significant. It has been guiding me, leading me into something special, and telling me something I was already 'knowing' on a very subconscious level, participating in it too, and now I am 'seeing' it more clearly:
There is definetely a new awareness growing in people. Mankind is waking up. Me included.
For last week I received a reward. At least I feel I was rewarded. And I celebrated. Because on 22-november-2006 something special happened. I didn't realise it until it was the next day, though..
In my country, The Netherlands, we had elections for a new parliament and a new government. One of the new political parties to participate was "The Party for Animals'. As they have been participating for the last decade.
And this time, for the first time in my life I felt so very sure, and supported in myself, in what to vote for. When I was driving in my car to the voting-location it felt as if all the cows and sheep I had been communicating with.... All of Nature I had become so fond of again.... All the species of the world in danger in their natural habitat disappearing. All the victims from the whole messy and and greedy animal-business.....name it all.. All the animals.... They were behind me, following me, pushing me forward, like they were saying:....." Hey! What about us?"
Wonderful that more people must have felt that. For the party ended up with 2 seats.
Ok. great. But 2 out of 150 isn't much, was the first thought that came up.
But when I saw the statistics in the papers, from my village, I saw that 283 people had voted the same as me. So, something suddenly shifted in me, and when I drove around later to go to the main-road, to town, I said to myself: "Hey, it is great, for there are more people living here, caring about the animals, concerned about how they are treated, and 282 of them live here, and have also been voting for them".
That felt so good.
Later when I read all the comments in the papers, some of them ridiculing the 2 seats, another thought came to my mind. I was thinking of a text I wrote a few months back. About starting with something new, and about success and achievement.
Peace One Day:
And this was certainly something new, and yes still small, with a small group of people willing to support a special vision. This was certainly something new beginning. Never been done before.
Only than I realised something important had happened:
History had been written. Because for the first time in mankind's history animals were represented in politics.
They have been given votes, and a voice.
Let's hope, a lot more people will begin to explore, and feel the care and compassion, the gratitude and thankfulness in their hearts, for the animals, world-wide.
In a peaceful way. For anger and violence. and fighting to get things shifted, is not what Mother Nature needs. is not what we need. We will need a lot of compassion, faith and endurance. Something that happened yesterday tells me that too:
For the last disappointing action of the sitting government, as nature is concerned, is allowing the hunt again in nature-reserves. Isn't that a sad action? But it shows the old will not be easy surrendered.
So, compassion, no anger. And let's stay hopeful. Let's be patient, responsible, wise, kind and loving, in doing something with that gratitude and love towards the animals, in expanding it, one day at a time.
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ERWINWulpen # Sunday, December 3, 2006 10:18:02 PM
Hoe waarheid, het ook moge zijn gelijk u, zijn er tot mijn spijt niet veel. Strak ga ik eindelijk in verlof na 11 maand van huis te zijn... rust zal wel gekomen zijn, doch zoals elk jaar tijdens mijn verlof ga ik met de BLINDEN (School uit Brugge) op stap om vogels te kijken, dit jaar komen wij naar Nederland, en wel de streek brouwershaven... en al wat daar rond te vinden is, ja deze belofte aan de blinden uit deze school (6de) leerjaar doe ik reeds van mijn 21ste... en dit is reeds zeer lang. Daarna ga ik genieten in mijn tweede verblijf in Portugal, en op 20 Jan 2007 ben ik terug ON THE ROAD voor 11 maand... zo je merkt veel tijd heb ik niet... doch die vreugde een medemens iets te kunnen bijbrengen is hier waardevol, en hoop gevende...
GRTJ
Erwin.
BastiaantjeBasti.nl # Monday, December 4, 2006 7:40:24 AM
Mooi werk. In kinderen investeren, met jouw liefde voor voor de vogels, en je deskundigheid. Dat zal zeker positief uitwerken. En dan een poosje genieten van je rust, en Portugal, en dan weer verder.....als je maar doet wat je hart je ingeeft, dan kan een mens ook veel doen.
groeten,
Bastiaantje
Jlangterra # Sunday, March 18, 2007 10:56:16 PM
Jlangterra # Sunday, March 18, 2007 10:59:50 PM
the deer in my yard want to eat everything I have
BastiaantjeBasti.nl # Monday, March 19, 2007 7:50:35 AM
About the deer: Here in Holland the deer are rare, and I was happy that they came in the first place, and I did not have much of garden than, so I didn't mind.
Now I have moved to a new house and have lovely flowers now in the summer, but no deer, sadly.
If I were you I would consider myself lucky with the deer, and try to fence a part of my garden part for flowers and vegetables?.....but I don't know your situation.
greetings,
Bastiaantje