History may reveal this brief chapter in my life as being just a symptom of a brewing mid-life crisis - nevertheless yesterday, we said goodbye to the kids...
...not the children....
...but our two goats that have been a part of our family - albeit a distant part - for the past few months.
Thunder and Floyd bleated their baaaah- baaah's ("bye-bye's") from the back of a pickup truck around dusk last night as they pulled out of our driveway en route to their new home.
The duo added a taste of adventure to our family over the summer and early fall. Alas, now R. can give her eyeballs a rest from their continual rolling at the latest news of all their shenanigans.
Only yesterday -before their fate had been sealed for certain - they had been tied out in separate locations near the back yard. They seemed to be enjoying the last remaining morsels of liriopa and the munching of newly fallen acorns. As AA and I were stacking some firewood, along with my brother-in-law and nephew, the two came bounding around the house - prancing gaily in their pride of having obtained liberty on their own.
Floyd had finally broken the dog lead that was once used occasionally for Tanner, our chocolate Lab; Thunder had somehow untied the Cub Scout inspired knots I had used for his tether.
I will say that they are very entertaining animals and - I believe- quite valuable. They completed -fairly successfully - their mission: clearing portions of our woods of undergrowth.
Lately as the days have grown cooler - and shorter, it has interfered with their grazing ability. Typically, I had been able to let them out for a couple hours each evening to graze. However, of late they had turned to our landscaping for nutrition. Darkness and the fullness of our after-school schedules often conspired together to eliminate that grazing opportunity.
I will say that they are very relaxing animals. I don't know if it is their constant munching or the tender way they softly bleat to one another while grazing, but it serves to set one's mind at ease.
I think most appealing is their single-mindedness.
These animals seem to live for nothing else but to eat. They are eating machines. They are quickly drawn to anything that sounds like grain or that is green - and they plunge toward said items with reckless abandon.
Maybe there is a lesson I can learn from my time with the goats (don't laugh - everyone seemed to take Jane Goodall serious). There is something very positive and right about having only a few, well-defined priorities and going after those with all that is within us.
The Apostle Paul said "This ONE thing I do" and for him that ONE thing was to press forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling that is in Christ Jesus.
.... at least for as long as the smell lasts.
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