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By Ute Bonn Pitts
Living in the current situation will make us look deeper into ourselves and what we are about. War, pandemic, inflation, food shortages – all fear-inducing. It is not easy to stay positive and have faith, and trust that God has it under control. I remember a story where a young man and his grandfather sit around the fire. The young man tells the grandfather that he feels that there are two animals within him – a sheep and a wolf. He asks the grandfather: “Which one will win?” The grandfather responds: “The one you feed!”. So true; if we buy into the fear, hate, anger, etc., we feed the one animal we don’t want to feed. How can we focus on love and faith? Not easy! I always need to remind myself about it. Living on a farm, a sanctuary, teaches me a lot about life.
This morning I was walking through the forest with my sheep, goats, and dogs, listening to some music, and suddenly, I felt so much love it brought tears to my eyes. The animals live in the moment. The trees are full of life. They just gave birth to new leaves, displaying a lively green. There was such peace around me, and I was so thankful that I could slow down enough to really feel it and be with it. I felt so connected with Spirit.
We all can get to that point, finding a peaceful place, opening up to let the love enter. Sure, it’s not going to be easy and constant; we have to work for it and remind ourselves about it when we fall into the hole until it becomes the norm to feel content and have faith.
It always gives me great pleasure to take the guests who stay at our Farmhouse Sanctuary B&B on a ‘farm tour’. Heartwarming how people respond to the animals and the peace around nature. We lost some of that appreciation (and the ability to experience it in our daily lives). Our priorities have shifted to values that don’t nurture us anymore, and I think this is why we see things going bad – a wake-up call.
What makes you happy? What do you enjoy? What gives you peace? What nurtures your Spirit?
In my case, I remind myself every day how lucky my husband and I are to live in nature, to be able to give our animals a wonderful home and to appreciate the love all on this farm have for each other.
HorsesSM
LouiseSM
Gundo SM
Another outlet for me is photography and music. Since the pandemic started, I have recorded two albums. One called THIS TIME, and the latest one, DEVOTION IN MOTION – the songs represent what I have been feeling my thoughts and moods.
The latest album is a journey – starting with dance music (dance and set your emotions free), and then it goes to more reflective, quieter songs and meditative ones at the end. As one of the listeners shared with me: “I loved the experience of your latest CD. I danced, sang, laughed, cried, and full-on enjoyed it.”
Here are the lyrics of one of my songs from the latest album that hit the point:
SCARRED
We all here have been scarred in life,
Experienced hurt and pain.
Carrying around this burden
Carrying around these lies
That make us feel unworthy,
That make us feel unloved
And we gain nothing by defending those scars.
The scars are not who we are
The scars cast shadows to hide our true, true selves:
Beings of love, beings of love, beings of love. Beings of love
Let go of all the feelings of hate
Let go of all the feelings of loneliness
Let go of all the feelings of despair
Let go of all the feelings of fear
Let go of all that’s not based in love
Let go of all that’s not based in love
The scars are not who we are
The scars cast shadows to hide our true, true selves:
Beings of love, beings of love, beings of love, beings of love
That’s what we are
We’re beings of love, beings of love beings of love!
If you would like to experience the music, you can find it on my website: www.voicedancer.com. So click and listen and enjoy. I love sharing the music – maybe it will lighten your day and lift your Spirit!
What do you like to do to have fun, feel love, and enjoy life…?? I hope you’ll find your joy and peace! My prayers are that we will get to experience PEACE ON EARTH!
– Ute Bonn Pitts
Ute Bonn Pitts and her husband, Conrad, live on a farm in Alabama. She, a singer/songwriter and he, a lawyer, started the farm with rescued wild mustangs, longhorn cows, sheep, goats, chickens, dogs and cats six years ago. In the near future they are planning to open a B&B on their farm. www.FarmHouseSanctuary.com. They travel when time permits to different parts of the world in order to offer their help. Last year they spent a month in Nepal – NepalInMarch. Ute was born and raised in Germany and moved to the States in the early nineties. Conrad was born in Orlando and has been living in Florence, AL for about 35 years.
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