God’s mercy and inexhaustible fertility are such that much good came from what might have been an irredeemable mess. — Kathleen Norris in The Quotidian Mysteries
This morning, I reserved two puppies – a male and a female Great Pyrenees from two local farms. Both pups are the offspring of livestock guardians, and the little dude is currently living with chickens. We’ll get them in early May, and I haven’t stopped bouncing with excitement since I conjured the image of me placing my face in their soft fuzzy bellies.
Lee is basking in the glory of green grass and sunshine this afternoon.
Saturday, we’re headed over north of Richmond to pick up our guinea keets from another local farm. Then, Monday, our chicks arrive. I imagine the mail carrier will arrive on the front porch with a peeping box full of fluff.
Oh my goodness, the amount of cuteness that is about to descend here is beyond measure.
Yet, I’m not naive (nor too long removed from Meander’s puppydom). I’m aware that next week means the workload here increases significantly – with feedings and groomings and the constant checking that comes with baby creatures.
Still, I’m so, so eager. I’m ready.
***
Three and a half years ago, I collapsed under the clothes in my boyfriend’s closet, overcome with relief at finding my cat still inside even though he had passed out under the influence of a fifth of vodka. I lay there and sobbed with relief and grief – over him, over my mother’s imminent death from cancer, over how I could have possibly come to this very place.
Emily’s white face there saved me that day, as sure as anything else ever has.
So now, as I sit with the sunshine at my back in this beautiful farmhouse, as I gaze at my husband’s kind sweet face in a photo on my desk, as I laugh at the puppy who moves from soft thing to soft thing and naps, as I see the first tiny carrot leaves peek up, as I await the arrival of 36 new faces here, I am overwhelmed with the way grace and mercy have redeemed the mess of my life.
I hope, very much, that you will come and share the gift of this place with us sometime soon.
If you’d like to help bring the grace of God’s Whisper to more people, please consider sponsoring a chicken, a goat, or a Great Pyrenees. Your donations will help us build a cabin where people can come to rest; they will provide food and shelter for the animals that we hope will bring so many joy; they will buy seed for the garden. Thank you for all the ways you support this place. We are blessed beyond measure.