I woke up this morning and my brother had emailed me something I wanted to share with you.  he began by saying “Interesting what comes out of this head some times, LOL!”

“It’s just not the same around here these days. Once this old commune was energetic and alive with joyful activity. You could feel the celebration of life in the air. We grew all our own food in our lush gardens, danced and sang in the joy of the wonderful reality that we had created. We do create our own reality you know. We had a wonderful mascot, a beautiful white stallion. He symbolized the high energy free spirit that we all shared. He galloped through the field and pranced with a special beauty and dignity that made him the center of attention. We fed him the best of oats and made sure he was well groomed so that he could display his beauty.  Everyone loved that stallion.  We traveled for many miles to find those special oats, bring them in each week in a heavy laden donkey cart. Surely such a fine steed should be pampered and looked upon in awe.

I remember my first days here at the commune. My job was to plow the field, walking patiently behind the donkey that pulled the plow. It’s interesting how you get to know an animal when you spend your days with him. You begin to know why that old beast so patiently plodded along. You begin to understand what heart is.  That old donkey pulled the cart that took the crops to town, he plowed the fields, and hauled the firewood that kept us warm and a dozen other jobs around this place. He just quietly did his job with never a fuss.

But it’s different now! There’s only a few of us left! We don’t have our nightly celebrations of life any more. Well, at least not like we use to. I think us few may have at last learned the meaning of love. You see, that old donkey froze to death last winter. We had placed our prize stallion in the barn where he would be safe from the weather. The old donkey, well there just wasn’t enough room. After all, he was a tough little critter and better fit to withstand the weather.

The stallion ran off after the oats ran out. I guess his free spirit told him he needed to seek his joy elsewhere. Free spirits tend to do that you know.  We sure could have used him, though. We’re now tending the gardens with rake and hoe, well what few of us are left. Some just couldn’t handle the extra work that the donkey had done for us and others just left from the shame of how they left that old donkey to die.

Back in those days, none of us had an appreciation for all that old donkey did. Heck, we were too busy celebrating life, and what a fine life it was, or at least we thought. We have a new mascot now. Not in real life though. Now we rejoice in the memory of that old donkey and how he faithfully served us, giving, never expecting in return.

Yes, life is different now. You may not always see the joy in our faces, but if you look a little deeper, into our hearts, you’ll find it there. We’ve learned that celebrations of life are more than joyfully cheering at the sights and sound of a charismatic symbol such as that stallion. Hell, he bolted and left us stranded when we needed him the most.

What we’ve learned is that if we are as faithful as that old donkey, and appreciate each other when it would be more fun chasing butterflies, we’ll develop a big heart too.

The moral of this little story is……, well there really isn’t a moral to this story. About all I can say is, it pays to be conscious and appreciative of the little blessings in life.

You never know when your ass is going to die.