Of Being Multi-Dimensional

Recently, someone called me the sheep lady which I took great offense to because it immediately portrayed me as one dimensional. The sheep are just one part of a complex existence of me — social practice artist, environmentalist, conservationist, mother, partner, teacher, inventor, writer, executive director to Rio Milagro Foundation, and shepherd to a flock of 130 primitive Churro sheep.

Through my adult life, it has been the animals that have allowed countenance to fullfill my existence and have taught me how to be human in this ever changing technological world. It is their ability to quietly wait for me to understand the beautiful subtle relationships that happen among interspecies, they have given me permission to love. Over my adult life, they have quietly coached me on how to grasp with my whole body how to be unconditional in my actions and allow myself to accept my flaws as beautiful without malice.

It is the farm and working with 130 Churro sheep that has taken me to a point where I have decency, the sheep have helped me understand the relationship we all have innately with each other, with benevolence, and our world,needs to be awakened — allowing the earth to heal. If only we quiet ourselves and feel with our senses what is needed — like the Churro sheep do as they travel quietly across the landscape. Picking plants as they go that benefits their health and soul, their small agile bodies walking softly across the fragile biocrust soil.

As all animals do that are sensitive to their surroundings as they walk through their short existence.

Rather than calling me the sheep lady, I think it’s more appropriate to call me just Jennifer.