Quiet Inside

All day long I have been telling myself I need sit down and write today's blog post. Just sit down, and type... But my mind has been in too much of a whirl. I have been working on my first book proposal, content outline, and have been working away on the manuscript itself. I have spun a skein of yarn, and knitted a chicken. Heidi and Ivy are in heat today, and I mourned the fact that I won't be getting a buck until next Sunday. At this rate I may not have goat kids until August!! My mind has been going at what seems like 120 mph... Going, going, going. Plotting, scheming, wondering... I was in no frame of mind to sit down and write a coherent post! 

I went out to do evening barn chores, in the same hurried, absent-minded way.

Until I went into the rabbitry.

I can't think of a single time that the rabbits haven't managed to calm and focus me. 

They're so quiet, it gives me cause to be quiet. My goats are talkative, so I am talkative with them. They yell when they see me leave, and I holler goodbye to them. The rabbits though, make no noise whatsoever, save the soft sound of their feet on the wire...

Silence.

I give each rabbit food and water for the night; noting that Doe #2 is getting noticeably rounder, which means that she is harboring babies in her womb. Rosie Cotton, the New Zealand also is getting larger. This will be her maiden litter, and I hope that her instincts will kick in.

It is dark in the rabbitry... I have no electricity in there, and there is no moon tonight. 

Dark.

Quiet.

Still.

I have no choice but to move slowly in with the rabbits. I can see nothing in there, and swift movements would not only put myself at risk, but it would startle the rabbits.

I must force myself to be calm and slow. After eight years of doing this work, my movements are repetitive and natural. Inhale, exhale. Camillo, my youngest buck nuzzles my hand as I give him his dinner. Glenstorm dances in crazy circles, impatient for his pellets. 

My work in the rabbitry takes ten minutes. Ten minutes to cause me to slow down and relax... I sit now in my comfy swivel chair, with a cup of tea next to me. I think I will watch my Polyface Farm DVD tonight before heading off to bed. 

I am quiet inside now. I have the rabbits to thank for that...