A Time of Blessings

Samhain it means "Summer's End".  It was in a time before ghost and goblins or even saints day.  It was simply a celebration of the seasons  coming and passing.  Samhain or summer's end was a time when you brought in the last of your harvest.  Took inventory of your livestock deciding what would make it through the winter and what would sustain you through.  It must have been a very solemn time.

I understand and enjoy the changes of the seasons.  It gives me time to reflect on myself.  I find myself grateful that we do not live in times where what we eat is dependent on what we grow or kill.  It doesn't matter how much I watered at night the parched sandy loam.  The sun just baked it the next day allowing nothing to grow.  As many of us can attest it was out of human control.  We have had a few day here and there of drizzle now and with the cooler weather I am not seeing a carpet of grass form in my back yard.  It is a grateful blessing to receive.

Our garden really only produced peppers in the beginning of the summer.  After that I realized it was time to let it go.  Recently I have harvested some grass for the sheep to eat from it.  When you look around you see blessings that you might have missed at first glance.  I was grateful for the trees that needed to be cut back out of the fence line.  They to helped feed the sheep and goats.

In spite of the drought we have been able to build upon our homestead with nothing short of gifts.  There are so many this past year.  We have two guardian dogs that came from our neighbors down the road.  They are sisters and I don't know how we would have ever managed without them.  We have a sheep and her lamb.  I tell you these are my beloved lawn mowers.  (I really love my sheep)  We were gifted 4 pygmy females that we were able to breed with our daughter's Nigerian Dwarf / Pygmy male before she banded him.  No more Bandito/Pan babies after these.  They are due in December.  Not the best time of the year for babies so I hope we will be ready to help care for them.

This past summer there was a lot we couldn't do but there was a lot that got done despite it all.  That is what it is all about.  Putting one foot in front of the other and following your nose.

I watched a show yesterday on the history channel about the Mayan calendar.  They explained that the Mayan's thought of time as always repeating itself instead of linear as we are taught.  I understand time I believe more like the Mayans.  It is not about a starting point to the ending point.  It is more about the journey.  In the journey things will repeat themselves and we will change as a result.

Have I changed as a result of this past year.  Yes.  Have I learned.  I sure hope so.  I know there are many things I will do different starting with now.  If you wait to change.  It might be to late.