Posted on Dec 14, 2017
By Ellie Laks, Founder of The Gentle Barn
As 2017 comes to a close, I think back on what a year it has been: so many ups and downs, losses and victories! We said goodbye to Dudley and thought we could not go on. We saved the St. Louis Six and opened a third Gentle Barn in Missouri. We said farewell to Buttercup, who we’ve been blessed to work with and love for an entire decade. Then in came Ferdinand, giving all of us joy and purpose all over again. Boy oh boy, did we need him!
There is a cycle at The Gentle Barn that has been in effect since our inception eighteen years ago. There is obvious universal intelligence going on here! Someone will leave, and then someone else will appear, as if out of nowhere, who needs us. We’ll have a loss and get stuck in the muck and mire of it, and then a victory will move us forward. We’ll wave goodbye as our senior beloved leave their bodies, and then a young breath of fresh air will arrive unexpectedly and renew all of our souls. It is hard to see in the moment, but when we take a step back and look from afar, the pattern is unmistakable.
As most of us, I have a few new years resolutions all picked and ready to go. One of them is to try to remember in the moment that life is a series of ups and downs, twists and turns, all strewn together to make up this incredible journey. I am going to be more like the ocean and let the waves roll in and out, accepting with more grace that angels come and go. No matter how long they are here, we are so blessed to have them, know them, and work with them to open more hearts and reawaken more people to love. That no matter what is happening in the moment, there is always something magical coming around the corner.
I am so excited to enter 2018 with Ferdinand! We’ll watch him grow and turn into an ambassador. We’ll enjoy him playing and making friends. We’ll all fall in love with him and feel better that he is on this planet with us. We don’t know how long he will be ours, but we will love him with our whole hearts for as long as he is ours, and we will feel grateful each and every day! Maybe this was Dudley and Buttercup’s plan the whole time?!