Recent blog posts have featured my life with my animals at Las Golondrinas and one post featured report of visitors who came to ‘meet’ my animals.

There can be magic in the encounter of humans and animals. When animals have learned through sustained exposure that humans are trustworthy, and humans approach with simple curiosity, open-hearts and joy, treasure is found. That treasure to be found, rare and priceless, is our natural selves.

By contrast, the great bulk of modern life is unnatural. It’s pasturized, homogenized, sanitized, and digitized such that our artificial selves are more about image and style and glitz than what is real. In fact, ‘reality TV’ has now falsified the term, making even the language of reality phony.

So I was pleased when my impromptu ‘petting zoo’ at Las Golondrinas became a true reality show for three car loads of guests wanting to ’see’ the animals. I can talk about what happened, but prose and rhetoric pale in comparison to what I saw.

Simply put, the faces of those guests, children and young adults, in memorable non-verbal expressions, mark the magic of discovering what our artificial lives forget: Nature’s claim on the human heart  . . .

Joseph Harvill, publisher Great Scots Magazine

Love is sweet, and it’s even sweeter when it’s not spring. In the spring, of course, everyone’s heart turns to love. The swallows return to Las Golondrinas to nest. Coyotes yodel more vigorously. Trees bud and leaf out. Bugs and frogs seek lovers.

But at Las Golondrinas, Merton, my herd sire donkey, isn’t waiting for spring. He’s in love.

I’ve been watching the budding romance taking place across the back fence on my property. The neighbor has two big horses, a paint and a light gray, who are now quartered in the field contiguous to mine. The fields are separated by a five foot high welded pipe fence strung with heavy hog wire.

The budding tryst between donkey and horse at the fence line is comical because the big gray horse is at least 15 hands high and Merton is under 36 inches tall at his shoulder! So the horse sticks head and neck over the fence and the two lovebirds nuzzle their prehensile lips, nip, and flirt, and then run the fence line together in childish glee, tails and mane streaming.

I’ve enjoyed pausing when leaving the house, to watch Merton and his special friend in the distance play their equine version of love-sick ‘footsies.’  “Good for you, Merton!” I’ve said to myself a number of times. “Make all the happiness you can!”

You can imagine my surprise, therefore, when on a recent trip to the neighbor’s house I got a close look at Merton’s new ’significant other.’ It’s a gelding. ‘She’ is a he!

Now, I don’t see myself as narrow-minded; don’t think of myself as prejudiced. I’m trying to get out of my box … Telling myself to open up to allow Life to surprise me … Reminding myself that certainty exists only in the closed mind … Wanting to create for myself a “new normal.”

Nevertheless, I find myself saying out loud, “But, Merton . . . say it isn’t so. You’re my Wise One … You’re deep as the ancient Greeks” ….

Joseph Harvill, publisher Great Scots Magazine