As Simple as Sheep

Between Cloverdale and Carp there lies a farm on the east side of the road that serves as a "half way" marker for me. This is a farm that has several sheep, maybe as many as a hundred.

During the winter months I'll glance their way to see them standing out in the cold, in wet and sometimes snowy weather, as each week they become larger due to the growth of their wool.

Then it happens.

I'll find myself doing a double take as the sheep have been replaced by these young, energetic, frisky critters running around their fenced in environment, happy and free to be released from the burdensome wool that had protected them during the winter months. I imagine some farmer makes a huge profit from the sheering of these sheep. Yet, I know their happiness outweighs that profit.

This makes me wonder about us.

We human beings have several fancy and sometimes technical names for the things that weigh us down. "Seasonal Affective Disorder" is the most recent label that describes what some of us go through but I still love my grandmother's traditional label of "the winter blues."

How DO the people up in North Pole, Alaska, make it through the winter months without much sunlight?

And then the sun crosses the spring Equinox, we begin to notice that the days become longer, snow disappears to be replaced by spring storms followed by sunshine, beautiful, glorious sunshine! People begin to search for errands that allow us to walk outside and get the slightest bit of a tan.

And thus is life in Central Indiana these days. The sheep have been sheered and human beings see life through a lens of optimism.

Life could be better but you're just months from when life was much worse.

You'll take every blessing that comes your way.