i can't seem to go back wards some times because things keep moving forward and it's like a current in a fast moving river, or here, the flow downward in a wide arroyo of rushing water.

last night was the Storm of All Storms.  maybe, really, the BEST storm i have experienced here in my 18, 21 or however many years?  But it was Fine and i was filled with FEAR.  but it was that kind of FEAR that very clearly makes you understand that there is NOTHING you can do in the face of it.  There was circular Lightning and Thunder .  All directions simultaneously and so ABOVE.  it came in fast succession, the vertical strikes.  The World Was LIT, completely ILLUMINATED by it.  and somewhere after maybe a half hour as this continued, WATER FELL UPON US as if a huge crack had been opened in that thing we call sky and a literal OCEAN came down upon us.

Earlier in what appeared to be a quiet calm evening, Barbara, or Whimsey, whichever name, neither feeling like HER name, gave birth.  What i believe to be the final kidding.  and 2 bucks.  The first was a breech but she labored him out, bless her, her mouth making a very odd and long almost tube like shape that she gasped into.  she made sounds that i can't even attempt to describe.  but he came.  and as i ran to close off the inside of the Albatros for her private space for the first 24 hours, the second was born.  Deb Lacativa will be glad.  two very excellent black and white.    the little girls came this morning.  Snowshoe and Storm.  and so.  it is done now.  and i cannot begin to even yet know how much a relief that is.  All Born.  All well.  

Two and a half months ago, 12 goats arrived here.  Today there are 26.  TEN bucklings and 4 doelings.    Ten bucks.  here is my duhkha.  ten bucks.  if Jenny and i lived as most have lived herding goats through the centurys,  those little bucks would have been JOY.  they would be

meat

but here we are.  10 bucks to find homes for.  As children's 4H projects or companion animals.  at the least, weed eaters in a place that will treat them well.  ALL of them COULD be potential herd sires.  they are beautiful beings.  but there is not time or space to entertain that now.  Last Thursday, the day that inspired the post of Duhkha, we worked all day with a quiet and oh so GOOD momentum, daughter and i and at the end of it, i was so grateful for her.  She does not claim any particular belief or source of sustainance but her abiding sense of non attachment is a miracle to me.  We worked.  We cut through aluminum walls with a sawsall, hammered and screwed and made do with what we had and banded four little bucks testicles…she banding, me holding and turning my face, my self away and we tried on Sonny Ray but his were too big and had to give it up and he ran and was afraid of me for the first time and the ordinarily peacefull BUCKS were inspired to chase him and make it all worse.  and as i watched them, i remembered that passage in the John Blofeld book that i had read just after the book was published in the 70's and understood for the first time the buddhist concept of suffering.

and right now, the early evening SUN shines from near the Rim of the West and more storms are forcast for this night.  they will scream again, those little ones, not knowing how to escape to safety.  i cannot help them.

what does this have to do with Cloth?    EVERYTHING.

001f

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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56 responses to “it was Not…..the End of the World.”

  1. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    This outdoes all the duhkka I’ve felt in the last days here–I’m returning early due to unrest in peaceful valley–but none of it that dire, nor so illuminated as your last night and the colassal, cumulative birthings and tendings. I was also sustained by cloth, and by the dharma ,the sangha, and Buddha.

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  2. elizabeth fortes Avatar
    elizabeth fortes

    Dear Grace! What heroism is required of those tending to herds and pastures.
    The storm has cleared the air of assorted energies and the soil is now full of nitrogen, enriched with inspiration. You’re right : cloth encompasses all of it! Everything has to do with cloth….
    Blessed be you , your daughter and all your creatures. Love, e

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  3. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar

    Dear Grace,
    Take care!
    eva

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  4. velma Avatar

    goats are wonderful beings, and i, too, had the buck issue. it’s hard if you’re not a meat eater.
    and wild storms, they seem wilder to me as i “grow up”. is that possible?

    Like

  5. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Velma…the buck issue. this morning i try to keep going
    with the buck issue. and it IS ~my~ issue, i keep saying to self. They are exactly who and what they are. they are perfect for Themselves…have evolved exactly the way that made sense for both partnering with human beings and also the continuing of their species. yes. it’s true, and so the FEELINGS i am having are Unnecessary, as Saskia says. True. but here they are, those feelings, nonetheless. and my work this morning is to look at how much i “project” my own filters over them. The three
    “very good and sweet” mature bucks are being very mean
    to Sunny Ray. not just the usual, but mean. not physically hurting him, but a constant constant harrassment. and i remind self of that day i took him out of “general population” for that exact same behavior he was exhibiting to all, All the does, his mother and sister included. so now he is at the bottom of the pecking order, standing off to the far side, alone. which is exactly where he would be to play the necessary part of the food chain as being prey for those lions, cheetahs.
    OHhhhh, eeeee and eeeee.
    and i DO eat meat. but i don’t want to eat them, because
    i don’t have to. i can buy meat. but if i couldn’t, well,
    what would i do?
    So much here and necessary thinking if one is going to
    take up the Keeping of Goats.
    Stand and Face, grace. what do you see. like, really. peel away all your preconceived illusions and what, Really,
    do you end up seeing.
    and Storms…i don’t know….they have always “fed” my soul of souls. this One though, yes. i think possible.

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  6. jude Avatar

    what would we do? I always wonder, but I suppose when there is need and things get real you don’t wonder you just go. maybe wonder later. i am picturing goat testicles, and I smile in the middle of all this life story.

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  7. Jennie Avatar
    Jennie

    Grace, you write like you live – full-out. Strong. And yes, everything to do with cloth, or if you were a potter, handling the clay…Who we are goes into everything we do and make.
    Again I say, thanks.

    Like

  8. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Sustained
    sustainable, be say a lot. but
    Sustained.
    i was/am Sustained by _________________. fill in

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  9. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    i receive your blessing so thirstily.

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  10. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    oh, bless your smile…SO RECEIVED.
    AND YES. it is all, once again Just Going.
    over and over and over.
    Goat testicles are lovely. when the babies are just born
    and you touch under them with your index finger..just
    so soft velvet tiny flaps like a kittens ear. and then
    growing, all full and FULLER. Sunny Ray’s now are like maybe small plums.

    Like

  11. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    and just an aside. Here, when they are OUT, like out in
    the seasonal pastures and moving from one place to another, the one who travels with the Sheep is alone. if kidding occurs then, he holds the young one and BITES the
    testicles off with his teeth.

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  12. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    and if i made wood things…that. YES. everything goes into everything when it is a being’s Life.
    and again i say to YOU, Thanks…..~

    Like

  13. Deb G Avatar

    Yes all connected, all threaded together. I read this post last night and thought about it a lot. About sitting in the storm and the little ones being afraid and how that is part of nature…

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  14. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    I was/am sustained by the wind that blows through my mind

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  15. Michelle in NYC Avatar

    The absolute reality of ones circumstance is all there is to go on. Feelings are precise guides in their way. To believe in the reality of your being makes every decision become clear it seems to me. You do what you must and only what you must. Do you see goat meat when you tend your flock? Do you see the life they are living? Is that enough? Something kills all the flesh we eat fish and foul, and something/someone winnows the grain and pulls the root. We negotiate our place i the order of things by our actions. Are you a goat herder, living off the land alone, self sustaining according to the weather and season? So be it.

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  16. yvette Avatar

    you brave brave woman
    whatever you do is better than doing nothing ..
    cloth has it all…..
    dagdag

    Like

  17. Linda Avatar

    i have stood by while hundreds of baby boys have been circumcised. it is a hard one too..
    after theo (our dog) got hit by the car, he was very nervous around other dogs. i didn’t know until i took him to the dog park and they all attacked him. not a fun time.
    we become our mother selves and want to protect animals as well as babies. you have went from a few dogs to a huge family. it must be so amazing to have so much to care for and yet you keep going on cloth. yes i think it is part of it all..
    cloth and life..

    Like

  18. saskia Avatar

    oh well, I’m just going to say it: my husband kills animals and cleans them himself (together with our eldest son, I’m too squeamish) and we eat them and enjoy the taste and need the meat to survive; we don’t ‘keep’ animals, but he is a farmers’ son and they still have land and it’s kept so wild animals can live there, hares, roedeer, wood pidgeons, pheasants, geese (I mean these are the animals we eat, there are of course others there) and in other places he shoots wild boar and deer; to my mind it’s a question of maintaining a balance: we provide a place for the animals to live and never kill more than we need. I was a vegetarian for years, before I met my husband and am now reading Leirre Keith’s book ‘the Vegetarian Myth’ having read about her over here, and she has a lot of interesting things to say about food….
    I’m not saying I could eat a goat I’d raised because despite myself I would probably grow fond of them, but who knows what I would do in your shoes Grace.

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  19. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    the Keith book came into my awareness at just such an
    interesting time..i am so glad you are reading it too.
    and i guess i am thinking how interesting it is that so
    many of us in America are so accustomed to keeping animals as pets, or as creatures we are very willing to feed what is running out even for human children*. (corn. wheat. grains in general). *around the Planet
    and if she is correct, and i think she is for the most part, this country will not be able to support its population as we have been accustomed to.
    that said…just as with the Choice to continue with a
    conception should be a very singular and private decision on the part of each Woman, so should our decisions on how to eat. but with either, and with everything else, it IS
    our responsibility to EDUCATE ourselves, and educate ourselves in keeping with a changing world that is rapidly facing new challenges for WellBeing and really, continuing.
    the urge to explore the possibility of small “economical”
    dairy goats to replace large cattle with large space need,
    large feed need was and is at the bottom line of what’s
    going on here. a way to participate in change. it could be chickens. or, just vegetables, fruits, nuts. Jenny
    chose goats. i can easily participate, having always loved them. and now, as with EVERYTHING, the whole of it all presents itself. i am almost 100% positive that neither she nor i would ever be able to slaughter one. But i am asking myself questions about placing a higher
    value on the keeping of goats as pets than as food for those who see them in that light.
    i also am interested in learning more about how other
    countries, other cultures understand eating. and i guess
    really the most, how we intend to continue feeding the
    population of this planet.

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  20. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Michelle…no. i never see meat. i see milk/cheese, yogurt, kiefer. but that is my choice. they are also
    meat. when i talk about the goats in my world here
    in New Mexico, more common than not the response is
    Meat. the question is first and foremost do you sell them for meat? No. and in the past when Jenny had them at her place, she would place a high price on the little wethers and point out to people that they are not meat goats, but dairy goats. if they want meat, there are other breeds that are bred as that and are less expensive.
    but….thinking.
    the hope is not to make artisan goat cheeses. but to learn and understand about making simple food. cheese.
    that could be a significant part in sustaining a family and enough families to ward off Depletion of the Planet.

    Like

  21. handstories Avatar

    i have got to send you the “fillyjonk” story.
    how good that you are getting this down as it happens.

    Like

  22. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Cindy…it feels like too much, Too Much goat stuff, but it is
    what this life has in each day now…so….
    and this is the journaling of this life. oh wha and EEEE

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  23. saskia Avatar

    well I haven’t finished reading this book so I don’t know her answer(s) yet, and I too wonder, and have been doing so for years now: how on earth are we going to keep on feeding every living thing without destroying the planet as we know it; some things don’t add up: like in the West and in the BRIC-nations we have far too many calories per person, at least for most of the population and (according to statistics) since 2009 there are more people dyeing as a result of over-eating than there are of hunger and at the same time there are people starving, for lack of calories…so perhaps there’s enough to feed us and the food is not going where it should go; how can this be, I see it is this way, but it is so Unjust.
    I have no simple answer, ‘cos there isn’t one answer, I’m guessing we need a revolution on many fronts if we humans want to survive.
    And perhaps I should look at it from afar and conclude that the human race will become extinct as many species have before us and that the planet will survive far longer and eventually die like everything else…..and there is nothing that can be done about it all.
    re eating meat: culture wise when our Maasai chief visited we learnt that the (true) Maasai eat cows and goats, but don’t eat birds or pork.

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  24. jude Avatar

    write a book.

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  25. dee Avatar

    I’d read it!

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  26. dee Avatar

    so much of import here and all I want to do is sigh and say, “I wish I could write my blog like this!” what keeps me back? judgment, fear of, privacy for my kids… I don’t know. (of course my ‘goat tales’ wouldn’t read like yours, they’d be – I don’t know what – tales of a suburban housewife – but they’d have more to say than my current blog). Bless you!

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  27. saskia Avatar

    of course we have feelings, we cannot help ourselves; I think what I meant was we don’t have to suffer from our feelings, but we do because we don’t truly see; at least I don’t most of the time, but when I really try and meditate i.e. look hard at what it is I’m suffering from or feeling, I can unfold yet another layer and find a deeper truth and this process continues until the Truth is revealed and the suffering evaporates

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  28. saskia Avatar

    your blog seems to say a lot, more than you can imagine

    Like

  29. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    i knew/know exactly what you meant. it’s true. it’s
    learning to look at them, allow them, then detach.
    just as you say above. exactly. and i think, Compassion
    is always what remains. yes?

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  30. saskia Avatar

    thank you Grace
    yes compassion for others and so important: compassion for oneself

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  31. Nancy Avatar

    She comes, she reads, she thinks…but she doesn’t always comment.
    There are things that take place here, conversations had here, photographs shared here…much pondering.
    As always, so glad you share. What a book this would be 🙂

    Like

  32. ali Avatar

    This makes me think of natures’ cycles of life–from the circular lightening at Grace’s home to Michelle’s wise “so be it” and to Saskia’s husband’s butchering. Grace, of course you know one doesn’t get milk/cheese/yogurt without breeding to create lactation. When I was in Mongolia, I watched the quick, nearly painless slaughter of a large goat (they called it a sheep, but to me it was a goat, and like you, Grace, I’ve raised them, though not nearly so many at once). It seemed a sacred process, an offering of thanks for the life that would sustain the family and their guests. The herder talked softly and stroked the goat’s cheek as he swiftly ended his life. I watched from beginning to end, the stomach expand and collapse, the removal of intestines, the careful separating of the hide, the cutting up of meat…through to the cooking on rocks in a heat/cook stove in our host’s ger (yurt), and finally to the offering, first to me as guest, of the liver and heart and then later potatoes, onions and chunks of meat. I watched the process side by side with a five-year-old boy, playing a facing-making game with him as miming and mirroring was our common language. I’m glad you said something, Michelle and Saskia. And Jude,too. It seemed important to me to witness the ancient ritual before I ate. It feels right to share some of that here.

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  33. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Well here it is. reading Ali’s comment…
    i think WE already ARE a Book.
    to me the best kind of book. about real lives and how to live them.
    so…here we have it.
    am making paneer, must not boil the milk. later

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  34. handstories Avatar

    (it wouldn’t let me leave a comment on the new post, so i’m a-leavin’ it here)
    oh, i love the idea of spinning in space w/you, jude & all.
    yep, to you, too.

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  35. grace Forrest Avatar

    and the part i am not good at

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  36. grace Forrest Avatar

    i am counting on this to be true…dagdag back

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  37. handstories Avatar

    isn’t it often too much of something? i was talking about the search for balance & flow today, always on a teeter-totter. love to you.

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  38. grace Forrest Avatar

    i think what is eaten/not in many cultures and countries
    rises up from really basic practicality. Some Native
    American tribes here do not eat birds. In India, it
    wouldn’t make a shred of sense to be meat eaters. Pork
    is an issue in many places for practical reasons.
    I was fascinated by being told by the “maniac” i was
    married to that you do not ever hunt and eat rabbit unless it is an R month..Sept thru April. I said why? he said because. ( the rest, the warm
    months, there is much more parasite activity in rabbits)
    i guess in my most “spartin” moments, i think that because we are here, because we are noticing and having these
    thoughts, asking these questions, having feelings, we
    or just I, i can limit it to myself…because i am aware,
    i need to respond. it IS possible that human beings will
    become extinct. very much so, i think. but that doesn’t
    excuse me from response in the time that i live. and
    less “spartin”, for my great grandson. he is only not
    quite 3.

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  39. grace Forrest Avatar

    i have always been compelled to just say stuff. no matter anyone else.
    your words here…hmmmm.
    why don’t you take one of your past posts that bring up
    these thoughts and re write it…what would that be????
    i love all our blogs, yours, exactly as they are. Women
    writing about how it is for them. so i have no sense
    of it being other than it IS. but if you do…

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  40. grace Forrest Avatar

    for so many years i wanted to write a book. but it was
    about Looking at stuff. and i never finished looking at
    stuff, so how could you write a book about what you
    keep on doing and is never finished????????

    Like

  41. grace Forrest Avatar

    ali…this is just so really so beautiful that you put these words here. it is the exact thing i think so much about. SoMuch. i just really want to hold these images
    you gave close to me for a while before saying more words.
    Thank You and love,

    Like

  42. grace Forrest Avatar

    yes…i filed a Help Ticket about the comment thing. They’ll fix it. it happened a week or so ago too.
    hmmm.
    but don’t you think it’s TRUE? aren’t we just a living
    book???????

    Like

  43. Deb G Avatar

    Yes we are, that is absolutely true. And cheese! Oh what a wonderful chapter.

    Like

  44. handstories Avatar

    yes, TRUE. i’m always saying, “it’s a story, it’s all about the stories” we are each & all compiled of tales & chapters- some twisting, some dull, but all ours & OURS.

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  45. Nancy Avatar

    You write a series!
    I’ve been thinking of book writing a lot lately, talking with my sister about this. I always wonder how to KNOW when it is done, when to stop editing, adding and so on? I know many authors struggle with this. I also think about how to add the texture that I would like. Mmmm…just thoughts.

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  46. sewing susan Avatar

    Hope you come back and read this Grace. I can’t get the comment section to open today’s blog “we are a book”. The collection you put together is absolutely stunning! I will come back again and again to look just to enjoy the beauty.
    And yes I agree we are a book. I was wrapped in my own duhkah the past few days and so reading all the comments to the last few blogs has been very very helpful. Your blogs and comments helped me so much. They reminded me that we all suffer but that it is in the opening and sharing our humanity that helps me find myself and to be clear again. HUGE!
    So yes we are a book! And yes a huge thank you to all of you for your comments!!!!! You all make a difference in my life!!!!!!!

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  47. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    it’s funny. for SO long, i wanted to write. but that
    has just dissolved in the last few years. Just dissolved.
    i am totally content with exactly what i’m doing. and
    to add, i love hearing what others are thinking/doing
    really more than i want to “say” anything in particular
    especially in a way that requires thinking about it ahead
    of time, editing etc.
    i like this sit down and blurt way of sending thoughts out into the universe. it comes out well enough most of the time and if it doesn’t well, i can just try again.

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  48. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    Susan…by being Open, to me, we nothing to lose and
    so much to gain.
    and SO much, YES…it’s the sharing. whether or not
    it is in total keeping with anyone else or not…it’s
    Unconditional sharing.
    Someone could respond here and say that i am nuts and it
    would be fine with me. Really. or they could say that
    something i am making is a mess. Well, ok too. i would
    just wonder what it is they were thinking and ask them.
    and then maybe see if there is any common ground.
    i’m glad you come here. i think we are still just learning
    to use Blogs for what they might become.
    xo

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  49. Nancy Avatar

    Susan, this was so good to read as it is true for me as well. I too have been surrounded by my own duhkah, tonight especially. It is nice to know their are some friendly souls out there. 🙂 Thanks to all.

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  50. Robyn Ayaz Avatar
    Robyn Ayaz

    Women of the book – Grace, this post is wonderful and I have to think before blurting out meaninglessness because I have not experienced this sort of life. For me the obstacles have been more of the mind and heart. I love the life experiences you all share on your blogs, I love the goat stuff and the cloth stuff and the philosophical stuff. Love to all, Grace I think you are a special kind of conduit. Big hug.

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  51. sewing susan Avatar

    Grace and Nancy,
    Thanks for your comments!
    Upon further reflection I realize when I am caught up in my duhkah that that is all there is. Just me in my duhkah. No others and though people try they cant reach me. I make sure of that.
    But now that I am out I realize the duhkah is not even real. It feels real when I am in it but it isn’t even real. This is such a gigantically huge realization for me. And being part of this discussion and community is what helped me to see this. I am grateful beyond words. love, susan

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  52. grace Forrest~Maestas Avatar

    we are such complex beings, aren’t we?.
    but every day, i learn. refine it all just a notch more
    OR fall back a notch to notice just as you have here,
    how at any given moment, Everything is available. easy
    and hard beautiful and not
    and as i write that i saw stitches, going in undulating
    waves.
    i think the really only important thing is that we
    continue to LOOK. constantly. and remain just going.
    I love Us.

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  53. Nancy Avatar

    Susan,
    I’m so glad you have begun to come here and comment…makes our world (everyone’s) that much richer! And all the better that it feels helpful to you. It does to me too.
    As an aside- the way you wrote about your duhkah…that old song “Me and My Arrow” popped into my head! Heehee A little laughter here 🙂

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