Donkey ways

It turns out that the lessons of a donkey seem to be working on me. As long as I remember to abide that is. Donkeys are known to be the hardest of working animals, and still in many parts of the world continue to be in the employ of moving goods and people. In that role they are not a fable of the past. West Africa in particular has seen growth in working donkey populations while the rest of the world has a lot of other important roles for them. Globally, those roles support 300-600 million people.

Donkeys can be seen competing with traffic along the freeways and roads in many places, some of the animals appreciated by their owners, often not. If they pause to size up their location and catch their breath under hundreds of pound loads and refuse to move until ready, they are considered stubborn and uncooperative and therefore punished for that behaviour. I can say that the gentleness and warmth and humility of the donkeys, Thunder and Joe, have brought me further into their world and I try not to imagine the uncaring brutality that our human species is capable of.

Taking pause is something that people of the western world may begin to rethink more thoroughly in consideration of present forced measures. In fact, the self-punishment that many impose on themselves is about guilt in seemingly not being productive, or accomplishing. My take is that the latter time can be the most productive in terms of assessing where, in certain moments, we are in mindset; a contemplative breather can be a good reset and also physically re-energizing. All well said, but expect mind-speak to be set ablaze with all the reasons that pause can’t be. The mind likes the words can’t afford, they’re big here. Can’t afford time; afford cost; afford to be kind to one’s being; to afford rest. Those are the conditions when I give mind-speak the signal to take time out for itself and take a hike.

Many have come to think that it is an exotic vacation as being the only way to unwind. For a majority of the population, if possible at all, it might be only a once in a lifetime event. Finances and responsibilities play a big factor here. The idea of a stay-cation has recently come into our vocabulary. A parent or caregiver to change it up and spend unscheduled time with family or friends can be a restful thing for all involved.

I took the donkey Thunder’s advice recently when I was reminded how the green grass of spring is a natural detox after a physically slow winter on a higher carb diet. Spring is also a good detox for the brain, a refresher in outlook through the planting and growing season. I have come to pay closer attention to when feelings of overload or overwhelm point to the redline. I make my living as a freelancer, so anyone that works similar knows that taking a break is not on anyone else’s dime, and ultimately it comes down to choice and what is most important. Rest awhile, I have come to learn, means enabling further the things I love to do. It’s as if the music of the silent notes I imagine, put there in composition to offer relief and new appreciation of the notes to follow.

For more than a few mornings I sat in a favourite spot, half asleep—walking in the dreamtime I call it— good coffee in hand while simply being in the moment. Out of the mysticism arrives a hummingbird to breakfast at an apple blossom that happens to be three feet from my nose. I know they are curious, as most living things are but I guess it felt okay for me to be privy at close-up to its world. Then, there arrives a honey bee to the same blossoms. I also saw how a tiny white moth with express beating wings was landing place to place. I noticed that it was always on the side of something, where it would land, and not directly on top. I reasoned that perhaps it was the remaining dew of early day that it was hydrating itself with.

The closer I got to see the world before me in almost microscopic lens the more I appreciated how fragile and vulnerable one microbe is to another. The moment was a meditation in its own right and from that I am influenced to make my footprint lighter and lighter as I yearn to understand the mysticism of life.

I considered all of it to be an affirmation of recent efforts in naturalizing my property, of wanting to step up to my part in answering the current call-out to help address nature’s needs. No bees or butteflies, no pollen, no food is how it works, and how the need to set ego aside and offer more than words is to be mindful of life on the planet.

Maybe it’s this, along with time spent with Thunder that makes me want less of anything material. It’s as if the current global health challenge has gifted me with the opportunity to further appreciate the bounty that is all around, and like the donkey, learn to do it without guilt and realizing that it is with pause that we can truly consider where we really are.