TALKING THE WALK

from Murph

I’m not so sure I have found a spiritual guide but I sure have found over time that interesting conversations can come about in strange ways. I suppose there is something to be learned from most continuing conversations no matter with whom or it.

We have 5 laying hens, three of them are pretty close to the max laying age, they were the original hens. One is a barred rock and two are araucana. The barred rock we call Henny Penny. Neither Freeacre nor myself are able to easily think about eliminating her when she stops laying her egg-a-day, which we expect to be the case at the end of the summer when she begins to molt. The reason? Conversations. Now we all know that birds are not known for big well developed brains, thus the term bird brain. However, whenever I wish, I can go out to the back yard, sit down on something, and Henny Penny comes over and we talk. Freeacre says I am becoming an expert at chicken talk. I’m not so sure of the expert label, but I have never had that hen end the conversation and walk away. I’m always the one who decides it is enough, usually within an hour anyway.

Now I am not going to claim any big revelations or spiritual counsels, but we do seem to reach some kind of agreement. She is the only chicken that will allow me to pick her up. I’ve had these kinds of relationships with other animals over my life. Horses, dogs, cats, doves, turtles, even snakes. Not sure what conclusions a stranger not familiar with these kinds of relationships is going to come up with. Other people on this site have talked about having these relationships, Montana the most notable and consistent. Got to admit, never had that with a bug. Although I have sat for hours watching a particular lady bug out of thousands that invaded my house in Iowa. Or watched a spider build a web. When they finish they tend to not be very interesting and just cling around for hours and hours at a time. Boring. Henny (HP) is not boring for sure. Maybe it’s the bigger brain then the spider. Norman (from Norman Bates), our white dove, is also an interesting conversationalist, for about 10 minutes, then he repeats himself so much that I have to drop it. Course, he is the only dove I have heard of that can have the tag of being a home defense system all by himself. He is the most aggressive dove of peace I have seen.

I’m not going to relate the verbiage in my conversations, although I have considered recording them for posterity. Both Freeacre and I can watch the chickens going about being chickens for hours at a time, almost hypnotized by them. Interesting social structure and interactions. No wonder we don’t get much done around here and feel like we are constantly behind on all projects. Sigh. We are being chicken hypnotized. I have on several occasions attempted to transfer my fascination with HP to another animal, for which HP scolds me soundly.

Now why do I bring up a subject like this on this site for heavens sake? Well, one of my contentions is that our modern society, actually western civilization, has alienated us from the other life forms that we share this planet with. In the case of domesticated animals, I have always tended to allow them to be their best and to be what they want or are naturally. Most of the time we reach agreements on how we are going to live with each other. Pretty much worked as far as I was concerned with few exceptions. Same with people isn’t it?

But, what I see going on around me is very little acceptance of other life forms, or an attempt to push the life form into some kind of conformity that is usually not very healthy for either, very much a power trip on the part of the human side of the arrangement, although I have seen it go the other way too, where the other life form takes over the relationship. In several cases I think that it was probably best for the other life form to take over, some people seem to have trouble running their lives and while it’s a bad job, somebody needs to do it.

Over time and with some observations, you begin to notice some really interesting personalities. With HP it means that if we leave the back door open and turn our backs for a heartbeat, she is through the door and into the kitchen. Loves the dog food. Strangely, she has yet to poop on the floor. Our dog has taken up TV. Will sit with us and watch movies and TV stuff, although she has shown little interest in political talking heads. Loves the nature shows and cowboy movies. She seemed to get off on The Matrix also which was kind of surprising. Even animated movies she gets interested in. Every time we bring some baby chicks into the house to raise, she will sit and stare at them for hours at a time. If we give her a chance, she will pick one out of the box and lick it till it is a soggy mess and scared out of its chick mind. However, she also will not eat anything with chicken meat in it. Interesting.

Freeacre is more into the plant world. Remember how Montana talks about the two legged, the four legged and the six legged ones? Well, Freeacre talks about the quiet ones. Their personalities seem harder for me to discern. But for instance, tomato plants like to be close enough to each other to touch. Radishes are more aloof and like personal space. Pole beans try to dominate their environment. Last year they took over the greenhouse and made it a jungle. When we close up the greenhouse for the night, Freeacre has taken to telling them all goodnight and that we would be with them again in the morning as soon as it gets warm. The aloe Vera plant in the house has really responded to personal attention and is blooming. When was the last time you saw that happen? First time for me. Freeacre apologizes to it profusely whenever we need some of its leaf for a burn or some other medicinal use. It is the first one we have had that is so big it is taking over the kitchen. TLC and respect seems to go a long way with plants, the quiet ones.

While I recognize that most people in my life will view this essay with quiet tolerance and amusement, I maintain that making the effort to get attuned to the other parts of our environment than just the human side is important. It is all interrelated and I think important. Besides, it makes for lots of amusing anecdotes to lay out for people to snicker at.

An old time 90 year old farmer I knew back in Michigan had been a farmer for his whole life. Had finally decided he didn’t want to work that hard any more and turned the farm over to his kids. He was considered quite eccentric and not sociable at all. Come to find out, he let me know, that he liked animals and plants a whole lot more than most people. They didn’t lie to him, didn’t take advantage of him and kept him well fed. He had just about an acre garden he put in every year and wouldn’t let anyone else tend it, and he only used hand tools. Every morning during the growing season, he would go out to the garden and walk down the rows of plants and sniff them. The ones that smelled right is what he ate that day. I think the term we use is “being in tune”. I sure did like that old man. I imagine he is long dead now. We lost a good teacher for this planet.