| I hope you're having a great week so far. Spring is springing here in the north country... Our snow has melted, birds are busy, new life is everywhere you look. Hard not to fall in love with spring on the ranch! But, despite this magical season we're in, this week's blog wrestles with some dark, heavy stuff but comes full circle, I promise. In my last blog, I mentioned a "growth mindset" being one of our core values here... Often, this means tearing down old walls you thought were truth but later discover were purelylore or based on something no longer relevant. Now, obviously we are in the business of harvesting animals. In my mind, I was challenging my paradigm of our meat business being justified and necessary.
This is my journey on 'death'... Death is inevitable, though arguably as much, or more, beauty lies in death as there is in life.Somewhere in our subconscious, we've decided that certain elements of the life cycle are more important than others(I feel mostly because we fear the mystery & unknowns of death). As humans, we especially appreciate the beauty of life, new life is the beginning of the life cycle and, therefore, we see it as the most valuable element within nature as well. While nothing can be sustained without procreation, every element is essential to the wellbeing and prosperity of all. Everything lives in concert with its surroundings, nothing exists independently. Nothing. Not you, not me, not the bees, nor the butterflies, or the bison. When we begin to extrapolate and isolate the elements of nature, placing varying values on each, we've become too myopic, we're missing the point. At the expense of sounding too harsh, reality is; nature does not care about the life of an individual, it cares about the vitality & longevity of the whole.
In order for something to live, something must transform to become a sustaining foundation for new life. Death creates space and opportunity for new life. Is the devastating winter preceding spring time a coincidence? Likely not. Death, in balance, is equally as valuable as the beginning of a new life, as by definition, it is the very essence of new life. Death creates space and causes us to truly appreciate the value of life.
Ironically, it's Easter week and, just the same, Jesus' gift of death offers us new life(which can dispel the fears of death and allow us to live every day to the fullest with peace and confidence). Looking around, it's really hard to mentally conceive the notion that life (you, me, or anything) happened by chance. Creation, the cycle of life, by a master creator, is consistentlyillustrated all around us. The timeless principle remains; Death breathes Life. To not have death means to not have life.
So, in life, is there anything more selfless than death?
No.
No there is not.
Occasionally, you don't have to tear down that wall. You go down the vulnerable, uneasy path of unravelling all your pretenses and you test your paradigm embracing the notion you could be wrong and the ramifications of that realization can be difficult, sometimes crushing. Regardless of the outcome, the desire and willingness to take up that journey knowing you may tear down old walls is always good and true. |
