Talking to Sheep

 

    I get a newsletter from the Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in New York, simply called Essays and Notes. In a recent issue, Volume 23, No. 1, a short interview with Mother Katherine shows her farm management approach: 

'This fall when I tried to bring the big group of ewes over the mountain, they categorically refused to go over. They turned and went down the hill to go to the barn. They didn’t really want to be in the barn, they just didn’t want to go over the hill. So I said. “Well, OK, you girls know more about it than I do, so I’ll believe you.” And a few weeks later, I thought, “We’ll try it again,” and that time they went. And in the late fall, I found out there had been a bear over the mountain. Well, they knew that, and I had not. That’s what I figured. There was something up there they didn’t want to run into. A bear. So they had the right – I didn’t make them, I don’t have herding dogs to make them go over the hill. So that was their self-determination, what they wanted to do.'

    And how beautifully does this fit with our theme of ecology and religion? What could be more perfect than a nun's interaction with a herd of sheep? I think this is a remarkably beautiful thing, for it takes a great deal of humility to take the advice of a sheep. The key word here is humility. What does one need to manage other living beings well? Technology? Education? Tools? Power? Authority? None of these. Only, have a little humility and be a little more quiet, and the other voices in our world will have a chance to speak! As this nun found, they might know a thing or two we do not. 

    Later, Mother Katherine says that: 

'I know the voices, and when I hear a voice I will respond to that voice with the name. And so they’ve learned that if I’m looking for somebody and I call out a name, they’ll either come or answer. If one is in trouble, and I don’t know where they are, and they call, I say, “You keep talking, and I’ll find you. Keep talking!”'

    Perhaps the role humans need to play in managing their environment is one of letting others into the spotlight once in a while. Listening is a transformative experience! One of my favorite words is 'Timbre,' which means 'the quality of tone distinctive of a particular singing voice or musical instrument.' Human voices have timbre, and I think that is a delightful thing. Humans as a whole must have a collective timbre, a unique sound which would come from all our voices uniting in song. We are not alone in this, as Mother Katherine reminds us in talking about her sheep. Each voice has a name. Think of the beautiful timbres we are missing in our planet's chorus when we mute them with machine noise and human ego. I am reminded of the 148th Psalm: 

Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children. 

(NKJV)

  The cosmos is a symphony. Each plant, animal, person, vast ocean, and shining star has its unique contribution to make in our song of praise. Each is fiercely unique, and yet has community: a kind to belong to. 

 A poem:

We sing to Love, we cry out to Light, we dance with Beauty, saying:

Holy, Holy, Holy, are You, O, Uncreated One!

My heart, full of longing, flows like a river

To You, My Oasis

My heart, pierced with love, falls like night 

Into Your arms, My Redeemer

O, My heart, how it sings; as wind in the heights

For You, alone, Our Father, we sing! 

   


  

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