Monday, May 13, 2013

New Perspective of Life on a Farm

I just read an amazing post called “Life On A Farm” by Luanne Armstrong.

Here’s an excerpt:
I have now been wandering around the same piece of land for some sixty years and now it’s clear to me that the more I know about it, the farther away I am from understanding anything. That’s okay by me. When I was eighteen I knew everything and now, all I know is that I don't know anything. I’d like to go back and re-read every book I ever read but I don't have time. I do have time, however, to watch and see and listen as I go for my daily walk.

On every walk now, a particular raven comes with me, appearing overhead or perching on a tree, silent, watching me. I stop to look, to recognize this presence. I don’t know if it is a she or a he. Or why she or he comes on walks. But it does. Or they do. Yesterday there were a couple of ravens, clucking to each other in the dead craggy tree by the beach, combing beaks.

When I watch animals, both domestic and wild, I interpret their behavior every day, trying to find the boundaries of a shared understanding. What do we share? Is it how our bodies move and communicate? Our senses? Plus we share land, we share an ecosystem, and I believe we share something else, a mutual recognition of being alive together.

Life On A Farm”  brought Storey’s mission to mind: “To serve our customers by publishing practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with the environment,” as well as bringing to mind many of our books. Here is a short list of books (out of many that could be named) that relate directly to Luanne’s beautifully written article: Alan Hamilton’s Zen Mind, Zen Horse, Cherry Hill’s How to Think Like a Horse, Judy Burris and Wayne Richards’s The Secret Lives of Backyard Bugs, and Tammi Hartung’s new book releasing this fall, The Wildlife-Friendly Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Food in Harmony with Nature.


For Storey’s full library, check out our Fall 2013 Catalog below.

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