There’s a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you know the one, he’s standing in front of a bottomless cavern. He scatters some sand into the abyss and from the darkness a bit of a bridge appears. He steps out and….trusts. It’s an powerful metaphor for that leap of faith that we sometimes need to take to get where we need to get.
I start work, volunteering every Friday, at Green Chimneys today. It’s a brilliant place, a residential school for kids with emotional and behavioral problems. I’m trying not be scared. I interviewed for a teaching position there ten years ago, and I wasn’t ready yet, wasn’t yet at a place where I could be of service to those kids.
It’s also a sanctuary and rehab for farm animals and wildlife. There’s a one winged eagle, a condor who thinks he’s human, a baby lamb named Brook found in a cardboard box in Brooklyn when she was just 2 weeks old. The children help care for the animals, the animals help heal the kids and everybody wins. Really. Everybody wins. It’s one of those places that even if you don’t believe, you can’t help but see the thumbprint of G-d all over the place.
I’m going to be working in the barn with the smaller farm animals. Goats. Sheeps. Chickens. Bunnies. Pigs. I have no idea what is going to be asked of me. I’m going to try to remain teachable, to not walk in and act like I know what I’m doing, because let’s face it, I don’t know anything about taking care of goats and chickens. Oh sure, I took a goat care manual out of the library but all that proves is that I have a library card.
My office mates shake their heads in bewilderment at the whole concept of using my day off to a) work b) do physical labor and c) work on a farm? are you crazy girl?
Not crazy, just taking a step onto my invisible bridge. Showing up and seeing which way the river flows. Before the day is over, I’ll have taken a look at a few homes for sale up there as well, because, who knows. Today is the first day of the rest of my Farm Fridays.
