Quinoa salad
+
Straight-from-the-spice-jar homemade chai tea
+
Qualitative Research Textbooks
+
Thunder & Rain
+
Man From Snowy River soundtrack
=
Perfect Evening
5 weeks ago
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
The Dummy's Guide to Increasing Your Awkward Threshold
I have a little bit more to say on the subject of social media, a lot more to say about my movie list, and some creative photography to share. But all that can wait while you enjoy a good laugh at my expense.
You may recall that your last opportunity to laugh at my expense was after an incident in which I was caught in the driver's seat, joined at the lips while driving my vehicle. And my track record in the back seat isn't much better. Needless to say, I've clearly been subconsciously waiting for an awkward moment to occur in the passenger's seat, which would complete my collection of 'vehicular' embarrassing/awkward moments. Wednesday arrived with a perfect opportunity...
My friend Mandy was playing chauffeur for me, driving in our friends' silver Toyota van as she had just dropped them off at the airport. I needed to pick up the printed photos for my photovoice project at Walmart before we drove down to Otterburne for an evening with friends. I had already paid for the prints, so it was a quick stop. Mandy dropped me off at the doors, and I hurried into the photo centre. The staff were super-helpful; I was in and out of there in under 45 seconds. As I exited Walmart, I saw that the silver van was pulled up to the curb so that we could launch straight out of there. That's like Mandy... she's generally pretty organized and on the ball with that sort of thing. I hopped into the passenger seat, trying to hurry but still paying close attention to ensure that I did not wrinkle or damage the giant poster-sized photos I was carrying. It was a Hollywood bank heist moment... you know - when the person jumps into the vehicle with a giant bag of cash and yells, "Drive! drive! drive!" while trying to jam the door closed without losing the loot. Like I said... I was hurrying; pie and ice cream with friends was waiting, and ice cream has a limited half-life.
That's when I heard it: "Uh... ma'am? Wrong vehicle." I can be kind of jumpy. A therapist would call it an 'elevated startle response', but whatever you call it, I jumped. Then - what's worse - I froze. I heard him say it again, "Ma'am? Ma'am! Wrong vehicle!"
The initial jolt of adrenaline wore off. "Oh my goodness!" might have come out of my mouth, or perhaps something nearer to a shocked scream, or maybe something inappropriate that burned the ears of the children seated in the back of the silver *Kia* van I had entered - I don't remember precisely. I mumbled an "I am so sorry" as I stumbled out of the vehicle almost as quickly as I had scrambled into it. Left standing on the curb with my giant posters next to a vehicle full of people who thought I was a crazy person, I tried to gather my scattered wits, looking around for Mandy. I must have looked like a little lost kitten trying to find its mommy, while the people watching me from the Kia van continued waiting for their own mommy. I wandered off, trying to appear as if I was moving purposefully. Deep down inside, I knew that I just looked awkward, so I gave in after a few seconds and called Mandy, who exclaimed, "You're done already?!"
More than done. "Yup. I'm done."
A person with substantial experience in navigating awkward moments (me...) once said that "the only thing between you and an outrageously ridiculous, beautifully hilarious story is a single awkward moment." True that... :)
In closing, my blessing for all of us on this beautiful May day is framed on my bathroom wall:
You may recall that your last opportunity to laugh at my expense was after an incident in which I was caught in the driver's seat, joined at the lips while driving my vehicle. And my track record in the back seat isn't much better. Needless to say, I've clearly been subconsciously waiting for an awkward moment to occur in the passenger's seat, which would complete my collection of 'vehicular' embarrassing/awkward moments. Wednesday arrived with a perfect opportunity...
My friend Mandy was playing chauffeur for me, driving in our friends' silver Toyota van as she had just dropped them off at the airport. I needed to pick up the printed photos for my photovoice project at Walmart before we drove down to Otterburne for an evening with friends. I had already paid for the prints, so it was a quick stop. Mandy dropped me off at the doors, and I hurried into the photo centre. The staff were super-helpful; I was in and out of there in under 45 seconds. As I exited Walmart, I saw that the silver van was pulled up to the curb so that we could launch straight out of there. That's like Mandy... she's generally pretty organized and on the ball with that sort of thing. I hopped into the passenger seat, trying to hurry but still paying close attention to ensure that I did not wrinkle or damage the giant poster-sized photos I was carrying. It was a Hollywood bank heist moment... you know - when the person jumps into the vehicle with a giant bag of cash and yells, "Drive! drive! drive!" while trying to jam the door closed without losing the loot. Like I said... I was hurrying; pie and ice cream with friends was waiting, and ice cream has a limited half-life.
That's when I heard it: "Uh... ma'am? Wrong vehicle." I can be kind of jumpy. A therapist would call it an 'elevated startle response', but whatever you call it, I jumped. Then - what's worse - I froze. I heard him say it again, "Ma'am? Ma'am! Wrong vehicle!"
The initial jolt of adrenaline wore off. "Oh my goodness!" might have come out of my mouth, or perhaps something nearer to a shocked scream, or maybe something inappropriate that burned the ears of the children seated in the back of the silver *Kia* van I had entered - I don't remember precisely. I mumbled an "I am so sorry" as I stumbled out of the vehicle almost as quickly as I had scrambled into it. Left standing on the curb with my giant posters next to a vehicle full of people who thought I was a crazy person, I tried to gather my scattered wits, looking around for Mandy. I must have looked like a little lost kitten trying to find its mommy, while the people watching me from the Kia van continued waiting for their own mommy. I wandered off, trying to appear as if I was moving purposefully. Deep down inside, I knew that I just looked awkward, so I gave in after a few seconds and called Mandy, who exclaimed, "You're done already?!"
More than done. "Yup. I'm done."
A person with substantial experience in navigating awkward moments (me...) once said that "the only thing between you and an outrageously ridiculous, beautifully hilarious story is a single awkward moment." True that... :)
In closing, my blessing for all of us on this beautiful May day is framed on my bathroom wall:
Laugh as much as you breathe, and love as long as you live.
I would argue - on a level much broader than this discussion of awkward moments - that one cannot love well without laughing often. In laughing at our own foolishness lies the key to mastering the painful self-consciousness that keeps us from truly seeing (and therefore loving) another. There's your philosophical moment for this Sunday evening.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Photovoice
I'm frazzled, and my frizzy hair - freed from its usual curly constraints by Winnipeg's summer humidity - only serves to highlight the fact that I could use a bit of down-time. I just walked in the door, having wrapped up a Photovoice exhibition that has been three months in the making, with an additional six months of back-burner planning. I now have 30+ pages of writing to finish off for that course, but hey... the presentation is finished. If you don't count taking the exhibition on the road, as I now hear the church is interested in doing... c'est finit! I could get on board with the travelling circus idea, roping the kids into it as well and giving them opportunities to advocate for their community... but I'd like a couple days to settle, eat watermelon, watch a movie, cry a little just to gain closure from this whole ordeal, go for a nice long run, go for supper and hang out with my 'family' in Point Douglas, wrap up a few more assignments, and immerse myself in my (paid) job. I would like that... yeah...
I guess I should define Photovoice for you before I get too carried away...
"Photovoice researchers literally give their subjects a camera and ask them to photograph certain aspects of their lives" with the goal of "empowering and enabling people to reflect their personal and community concerns; to encourage a dialogue... about personal and community issues;" and to see issues from the unique grassroots perspective of those in the community and sharing these issues with policymakers, politicians, and professionals.
(Berg, B. L. 2009. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences (7th Ed.). Toronto: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 261-262.)
And later... I will put up some of the photo work of this group of extraordinary young people. Soon. Here's a teaser for the time being. Taken by a 12 year-old.
This, my friends, is one of the things that has consumed and enriched my life for the last three months. I love it.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Why I like the letter B
More on Facebook later. The rant isn't over yet... I can get a little more mileage out of that one - one or two more posts, perhaps. If people start de-friending me, I'll know I've crossed the line. But at the end of the Facebook rant series, I will have decided what I'm doing with Facebook, and will act according to my decision. In the meantime, I would like to take this brief moment to extol the letter B. Specifically, I would like to talk about the letter B as it relates to professor's judgment of my academic performance. But to explain why I like the letter B, I need to back up one step...
I like the letter A.
I don't like mediocrity.
But neither do I like being measured by the judgments of others.
I do not like the idea that a grade on a paper defines me.
When you see the letter A in red ink at the end of your papers as often as you see your first and last names on the title page, it becomes difficult to separate one from the other.
No matter how diligently you remind yourself that it's not your identity.
Some of you may scoff and ask when I last got anything less than an A.
In April, thank you very much.
I got a B.
Not a B+.
It was a solid B.
My roommate congratulated me.
We've been working on this all year.
I went to the prof's office.
We talk sometimes.
So we chatted about my plans for September.
I asked him to write a reference for me.
He did.
Mostly he said good stuff.
He questioned the stability of my emotional health.
But who really needs emotional health to take an M.A. in Counselling... really?
We laughed.
He said that when I emailed to make an appointment, he thought I was going to contest my B.
I told him that both of us knew it wasn't my best work.
And thanked him for the B.
He said, 'This is a twisted conversation.'
So I told him...
Concluding thoughts: I like the letter B (when it appears on an assignment), and the letter A (when it appears on my transcript)... I like my GPA. But I'll jump that hurdle too, I'm sure.
I like the letter A.
I don't like mediocrity.
But neither do I like being measured by the judgments of others.
I do not like the idea that a grade on a paper defines me.
When you see the letter A in red ink at the end of your papers as often as you see your first and last names on the title page, it becomes difficult to separate one from the other.
No matter how diligently you remind yourself that it's not your identity.
Some of you may scoff and ask when I last got anything less than an A.
In April, thank you very much.I got a B.
Not a B+.
It was a solid B.
My roommate congratulated me.
We've been working on this all year.
I went to the prof's office.
We talk sometimes.
So we chatted about my plans for September.
I asked him to write a reference for me.
He did.
Mostly he said good stuff.
He questioned the stability of my emotional health.
But who really needs emotional health to take an M.A. in Counselling... really?
We laughed.
He said that when I emailed to make an appointment, he thought I was going to contest my B.
I told him that both of us knew it wasn't my best work.
And thanked him for the B.
He said, 'This is a twisted conversation.'
So I told him...
- B tells me that I have room to improve: I'm still learning, being challenged, and that's a good thing.
- B tells me that I have nothing to hide: I'm not perfect, and I need not spend my time trying to prove that I am.
- B tells me that I'm normal: everyone has ups and downs, and I'm no exception.
- B tells me that my life is becoming balanced, that it matters that I take time to eat dinner with friends, blog, sit in my hammock, read Tolstoy, watch Jane Austen movies, wear moccasins, play with the neighbour's dog, drink tea, take vitamin C, try on eclectic jewelry at Ten Thousand Villages, look at the stars, make a collage that encompasses my feelings, immerse myself in research simply because I enjoy it, have an argument, listen to a friend, share my feelings, go on a date, sleep in on Saturday... these things matter.
- B tells me that I matter. I have gotten more formal recognition for my grades than anything else in life, and after a while, you start to wonder if anyone can see past the giant A stamped on your forehead.
Concluding thoughts: I like the letter B (when it appears on an assignment), and the letter A (when it appears on my transcript)... I like my GPA. But I'll jump that hurdle too, I'm sure.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Word of the Day
Vaguebooking:
Intentional or unintentional vague or ambiguous facebook status message, which people have no clue as to what the heck you are talking about. Also included is posting fragmented song lyrics without stating the artist. (Thank you http://www.urbandictionary.com!)This word has been featured in the past, but my own recent status update and the outpouring of 'likes' from my wonderful and well-meaning family and friends prompted the word to float up from the depths of the deep past to the surface of my memory. The status update experiment worked.
Example:
People who like this
Could someone please tell me... in sufficiently vague terms... of what I was speaking? This is not an indictment... this was pure entertainment value for me.
Multiple choice question #1 re: Jenni's vaguebooking comment.
a. A month ago, Jenni had no idea what she was doing with her life, but she has spent some good time over a cup of coffee at Starbucks and now has her life all figured out. Not only that, but she now has her dream job, a house on the lake, a chameleon, and a mosquito control specialist on her personal staff team!
b. A month ago, Jenni was sitting on pins and needles wondering how she did in her qualitative research course, and now knows that she passed... with a perfectly average but not so great C.
c. A month ago, Jenni's car started rattling a little bit. It nagged at her until she finally took it into the mechanic to get checked, where she was informed that the repairs would cost $1200.
d. A month ago, Jenni started having headaches and severe pain in her right ear and had to go to a specialist for tests. She got the test results back... and now knows she has an inoperable malignant brain tumour and three months to live.*
The sarcasm dripping from my voice is amused, not irritated, and I think fondly of how I would love to go for coffee and have a genuine chat with each of these really great friends. Jane, on the other hand... she went right ahead and asked for an update. We'd go for coffee if I was a little bit closer to Michigan. I just wonder (as per my previous comments), does social media give us a false sense of familiarity and connectedness with people?
My dear sister, on the other hand, is the Queen of Anti-Vaguebooking:
My dear sister, on the other hand, is the Queen of Anti-Vaguebooking:
Specific, accurate, concrete. No vagueness here. You can count on Heidi to provide up-to-date matter-of-fact updates of her day, week, and life. Christmas newsletter-style.
But in defence of vaguebooking... should social media be used as a means of deep, genuine connection? There's nothing quite like reading the status updates of people who bare their souls on Facebook. I mean absolutely no offence to those who risk vulnerability in this context, but I question the venue. I cringe a bit because I have seen Facebook conversations used by RCMP in criminal investigations, I have read juvenile spats between teenagers on FB walls, I have perused the intimately personal accounts of people's addictions via social media. We've all heard about some teacher or other professional who was fired from work for personal opinions or a scandalous photograph posted on a public forum. Once it's out there... we can't take it back. It's public. Exposed. For e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. My wonderful sister's update wasn't inappropriately self-disclosing... I'm not saying that. I'm just asking...
...what's the balance between self-disclosure in the interest of healthy vulnerability and self-restraint in the interest of appropriate vulnerability? I'm all about vulnerability these days... something I will discuss a little ways down the line. In the meantime, social media is simmering in my stew-pot. So... your thoughts?
*Note: None of these is true.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
A reflection on vulnerability, healing, and hurt
God who created my heart
With a hunger for relationship,
Feed me.
Give me humility and honesty
To admit the depth of my desire.
Give me wisdom
To know friend from foe
And to give generously of myself to both,
While guarding my heart
Which you entrusted to me.
Give me courage
To risk relationship
And sometimes, to draw a line in the sand.
Give me a generous love
As you gave me your extravagant love
To make relationship transformative
Instead of self-serving.
Father of all,
Give us an appetite for the real deal
So we may systematically spurn substitutes.
Give us wholeness
As in our impetuousness and fragility
We mangle each others' hearts.
Shape us instead into agents of your healing,
As we - made in your image - overflow
From an abundance of your crazy love,
Giving all the credit to you
As you create butterfly transformations
In our caterpillar lives.
credits: photo from the blog of Heidi Cassadas
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Hooked on Phonics? or Facebook?
I've been thinking for a while about the ways in which I use social media, and the filter-down ways in which our collective use of social media affects us. Watch this.
We all know about cyber-bullying by now, but what about the presence of bigger bullies? Sharks instead of puny siamese fighting fish. I liked the writer's use of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in his discussion of people's internet use (beginning at 8:15).Moment of honesty... When I'm using Facebook, what level on Maslow's hierarchy am I trying to meet? Honestly? Not often self-actualization. Not often in pursuit of social justice for others. I'm most often chatting with friends. Code for: Trying to meet the universal human need for belonging and esteem from others. And this is how it works...
We all seek belonging. It's normal, healthy, and inescapable. The real question is to what extent social media facilitates meaningful relationship. After an hour on Facebook... do we feel soul-filled? or do we long for better connections? What about after an hour of chatting over coffee with a friend? What are the most effective ways of fostering connection between one person and another.
Some may argue for the value of Facebook and other social media (like this blog), and my desire is not to entirely negate this. However, I am arguing that social media has LIMITED value in forging meaningful (soul-filling) interpersonal connections. Perhaps social media (Facebook and Twitter being prominent among them) is the candy of social connections; it spikes the blood sugar but doesn't offer any real nutritional value. We're kidding ourselves if we think that social media provides a balanced social diet. Time spent using social media should be monitored much in the same way we monitor our fast food intake. We fear that it would make us feel disconnected from 'the rest of the world'. And yes... abstaining may feel like a strict diet or a radical cleanse until we learn new patterns of connecting. Social media connects people - yes! I question, however, the quality of the connection.
Possible action points:
- We need to grow in honesty with ourselves about our motives for using social media. Disengage from social media to the extent that you need to in order to connect and belong in relationally healthy ways. Keep in mind that Facebook unleashes the cyber-equivalent of candy cravings - just because you really want it doesn't mean you need it, nor that it's healthy for you.
- We need to critically appraise what we see. Identify the worldview from which the material is presented, with its assumptions, biases, and/or agendas. Identify the ways in which media affects our ways of thinking and behaving.
- Lastly, we need to intentionally, actively and deliberately engage social media to foster positive social change. While the definition of "positive" may be debated, what matters is that social media become a forum for discussion instead of a feel-good warm-fuzzy 'I heart you' kind of tool. Use social media as a platform from which meaningful dialogue about important social concerns may occur. There are inherent problems with this concept. For a graphic demonstration, go to yahoo.ca and read the comment section under a news article about the Middle East. The anonymity afforded by the internet (albeit a somewhat false sense of anonymity) leads us to say and do things that we would not say or do if we were in face to face dialogue. Online "community" is more distanced than real community, and with this distance comes an overall decline in respect because Osama bin Laden's widows are not sitting across the table from me where I can see etched on their faces the sum total of their grief, fear, trauma, and whatever other emotions they are currently experiencing.
On that note... I'm going to head down to the Forks to have coffee with a friend. I am also toying with the idea of disabling my FB account entirely, though I will likely settle for a five minutes a day rule. I don't know... it all feels so uncomfortably non-conformist.
I must give credit to Meghan and Freda for giving me a head-start on this by sharing their thoughts.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
never say never
i didn't say never... i just said something along the lines of, "probably not." i speak of my attitude toward camp programs in general. would i ever lead at camp again? "not likely," i would have insisted. there is a time for everything, and a season for everything under the sun. and the season of camp ended with an exhausted jenni-bee in 2008. i was sure of it.
but today, i am very happy to say that i am the happy director of adventurer's day camps (run out of the winnipeg e-free church). i am choosing t-shirt colours, hammering out themes, choosing curriculum (or writing my own??), making sure staff files are in order, familiarizing myself with our budget, meeting with my assistant to get a sense of what's been done in the past, and meeting with my boss to get a sense of where the program could go, etc.
so what changed? a tenacious eight year-old with pigtails and a big smile had a pretty blunt conversation with me... that's what. unthinkable. unthinkable is the fact that i have turned down the jobs in my field that i applied for (although they offered me better positions than what i applied for in every case) and took a job that i didn't apply for until i knew i had it. unthinkable is the fact that my landlords are delighted that i'm occupying their 3 bdrm home for the summer - for the price of one room (and recently offered to cut my rent). unthinkable is the fact that i've gone from working evenings and weekends to working mon-fri days, from commuting 40 minutes to a 7 km bike ride, from crisis/high needs work to creative/team development work.
what a week! life has changed so much... and i have so many reasons to be grateful.
but today, i am very happy to say that i am the happy director of adventurer's day camps (run out of the winnipeg e-free church). i am choosing t-shirt colours, hammering out themes, choosing curriculum (or writing my own??), making sure staff files are in order, familiarizing myself with our budget, meeting with my assistant to get a sense of what's been done in the past, and meeting with my boss to get a sense of where the program could go, etc.
so what changed? a tenacious eight year-old with pigtails and a big smile had a pretty blunt conversation with me... that's what. unthinkable. unthinkable is the fact that i have turned down the jobs in my field that i applied for (although they offered me better positions than what i applied for in every case) and took a job that i didn't apply for until i knew i had it. unthinkable is the fact that my landlords are delighted that i'm occupying their 3 bdrm home for the summer - for the price of one room (and recently offered to cut my rent). unthinkable is the fact that i've gone from working evenings and weekends to working mon-fri days, from commuting 40 minutes to a 7 km bike ride, from crisis/high needs work to creative/team development work.
what a week! life has changed so much... and i have so many reasons to be grateful.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
THINGS
i really enjoyed this exercise. so i thought to myself... self, why not make THINGS a monthly tradition? but it became verbose and sentimental last time, so i'm going to expedite the process and release the abbreviated version.
[FYI - 'Things' is also a game. If you don't know the rules to this game... I'm sorry. You should learn. There's the version in the box. Or there's the version where you make it up as you go along. I like the latter better. It's way more fun when the players are the ones making up the categories. Like "Things you should never name a children's book". My answer: "Peeping Tom Goes to Play-school".]
five things for which i'm grateful...
... Angelle's kitchen window that looks out on a farmyard full of quirky farm animal personalities.
... an hour spent chatting with Val, who stretches my mind and reminds my heart that it has found its niche.
... hours of silence.
... C-Bear's uncanny ability to pinpoint and exploit the things that make me uncomfortable and awkward. she's a friend who knows me well.
... the letter B when it represents a grade on a paper, or a girl who's texting me about a bearded dragon.
four things i look forward to...
... wednesday. seriously - how many good things can fit onto a single calendar day? a phone date with an old friend, some good time with a new one, and a quiet, clean house for the rest of the time.
... celebrating milestones with the people i love as we journey through life together... there are a few milestones coming up this month!
... a much-anticipated visit to AB.
... moving into my new place... having my own space!
three things that are weighing on my mind...
... choosing to sink my roots into flooded MB instead of trying to transplant back to AB again.
one thing...
...the Unknown is just another word for Opportunity; to worry about what is yet unknown impoverishes it of its beauty by distorting the way we see life. humans are easily convinced that life consists in snatching crumbs from beneath the fist of the giant Hardship instead of receiving generous gifts from the hand of a caring God. we must choose to see the Unknown as Friend instead of Foe.
[FYI - 'Things' is also a game. If you don't know the rules to this game... I'm sorry. You should learn. There's the version in the box. Or there's the version where you make it up as you go along. I like the latter better. It's way more fun when the players are the ones making up the categories. Like "Things you should never name a children's book". My answer: "Peeping Tom Goes to Play-school".]
five things for which i'm grateful...
... Angelle's kitchen window that looks out on a farmyard full of quirky farm animal personalities.
... an hour spent chatting with Val, who stretches my mind and reminds my heart that it has found its niche.
... hours of silence.
... C-Bear's uncanny ability to pinpoint and exploit the things that make me uncomfortable and awkward. she's a friend who knows me well.
... the letter B when it represents a grade on a paper, or a girl who's texting me about a bearded dragon.
four things i look forward to...
... wednesday. seriously - how many good things can fit onto a single calendar day? a phone date with an old friend, some good time with a new one, and a quiet, clean house for the rest of the time.
... celebrating milestones with the people i love as we journey through life together... there are a few milestones coming up this month!
... a much-anticipated visit to AB.
... moving into my new place... having my own space!
three things that are weighing on my mind...
... job-hunting... who needs a job anyways? but i need money for school. i also want the right job. one that cares for and equips their staff, one that suits the strengths that i have to bring to the team, one that challenges me a bit.
... career-thoughts... am i moving in the right direction? maybe i should investigate some broader options.
... unknowns - of which i have many right now.
two risks i'm glad i took...
... having an honest, vulnerable conversation with a friend.... choosing to sink my roots into flooded MB instead of trying to transplant back to AB again.
one thing...
...the Unknown is just another word for Opportunity; to worry about what is yet unknown impoverishes it of its beauty by distorting the way we see life. humans are easily convinced that life consists in snatching crumbs from beneath the fist of the giant Hardship instead of receiving generous gifts from the hand of a caring God. we must choose to see the Unknown as Friend instead of Foe.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
God's in His heaven and all's well with the world
Angelle is a cow-whisperer. Intending only to take a picture of the cow, who was staring into our car windows like a kid peeking in the windows of a candy shop, she managed to get closer to the now-calm little holstein. Telling him that he is the cutest year-old cow to ever walk the muddy barnyard (which may or may not be true) and offering a loving head-scratch, she earned an affectionate cow-hug and attempted kiss from the cow who licked her repeatedly.
I slipped over to the barn to get some twine, fashioned a make-shift halter, and slipped it over the head of the cow, telling him in deceptively affectionate tones that he is a little black-sheepish brat who deserves nothing less than a swat on the hind end. He followed me compliantly until we reached the haystack. There was a bit of a non-compliance issue, but we made it to the gate which Angelle had opened, and the cow entered with some gentle encouragement and a well-aimed thwack with my loop of twine. He immediately walked over to the shade under the tree where the sheep lay despondently, bent his head down to the sheep for some quiet words of confession and apology. He stood silently for long moments with his friend, bending his head down beside hers every so often.
The rooster crowed his enthusiastic approval, but the barnyard was otherwise at peace again - the goats and llamas basking in the sunshine with satisfied looks that said that God's in his heaven, the cow's in the pen, and all's well with the world. Except my dry pants, which are rimmed in spring soup from our latest trip to the barnyard gate.
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