Milk!

We got two and a half liters (quarts) of milk from Opal yesterday. Her milk is good and beautiful with a thick layer of pale yellow cream on top. I am very grateful to her. Drinking her milk makes me more aware of the amazing process through which sunlight is converted to grass, which is eaten by a cow and converted to milk, which then nourishes our bodies. It seems like a few simple steps: sunlight-cow-human, and I see this process happen right in front of my eyes, and yet, it is amazing verging on the miraculous, and I doubt I’ll ever understand.

Yesterday I was feeling quite fragile. Ed and I had had a hard time the night before, and it affected me emotionally and physically. I had a busy day harvesting and selling, all the while feeling shaky. At night I had supper alone, while Ed and the girls were at karate. I could see the cows grazing and playing outside. At one point, Olive, the calf, started running and jumping from one end of the pasture to the other. It looked like she was having so much fun, she’d just run as fast as she could, bucking once in a while. Her mother, Opal, grazed and watched, and Jasmine, who’s still a calf herself, joined in running with Olive once in a while. It struck me that whatever it is that makes Olive run so joyfully, that’s the stuff that we need to reconnect with inside ourselves. She was just running for pure joy, and it gave me hope to see her that and realize that we all have that spark inside of us.

Peace