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Prayer after eating


Hello friends! It has been an eventful few days, with our first hog going to market sooner than expected, and the rest of them going yesterday. 

Last Sunday, a week before the scheduled "to market" date for the hogs, it became quickly apparent that Spot, one of our two male hogs, had injured his leg. First he was limping, and then he wasn't moving much, and then not at all; temperatures were lower last week but still sunny, and we had real worries about him getting to water and food. We were so close to "surviving" our first season of raising hogs without any major events (save two escapes) and now this. I was stressed out and spent many a sleepless night praying Psalm 127 to walk myself down from the ledge. 

Dave got in touch with a mobile processor who agreed to come out to our farm later in the week. In the meantime we would take Spot a chafing pan full of water and a plastic sled that we would put his feed into. (He did try to sit in the chafing pan, which was quite a sight!) Giselle and I took turns during the day with Dave at work, taking him water, which he would drink some of and then promptly knock over. 

It is curious, caring for farm animals. I will admit that I have not had the least bit of margin in my life over the past 8 years to add caring for another living thing besides newborn babies to my life. We haven't had dogs since our two boxers that we adopted probably 15 years ago, and our chickens and ducks are closer to pets for my daughter, who loves them like her own babies. Me, I haven't gotten very attached to them mostly. And I can't say that I felt myself growing attached to the pigs during these last couple months...at least not in the way that one does when they can squeeze a dog and plant a big kiss on their pet. 

But I got to know their tendencies-- Pigs remind me of dogs. They possess exuberance. They sprint across the field when they're excited about something (food--slop--humans--etc.). They snort and grunt and "talk" to each other. They are smart and they like human company, at least as far as I can tell. 

The day when Spot was scheduled to be shot and taken to the processor, I felt a strange emotion. Perhaps a sadness. This creature we had worked so tirelessly to care for over the last four months was going to become our food and no longer be a part of our lives. I am grateful, as someone who consumes and is fed on animals, to be confronted with the truth that life costs death. Something to ponder in more than one area of our lives. 

To close, I will leave you with a Wendell Berry poem, Prayer After Eating. May our brains be bright with praise--

prayer after eating :: wendell berry

I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of motion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

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