This Season of Life

 

Here on La Belle Farm, in the Hudson River Valley, we raise heritage breed Narragansett turkeys. Well, we used to raise turkeys. Plural. But now our Tom Turkey is nearly ten years old—that’s around sixty in human years. Not that old, right? Although, I just read that the longest living turkey was a twelve year old hen in Pennsylvania. She broke a record.

But at ten years old, Big Tom is getting fragile. He will still come out the barn to greet you when you drive up to our house. And he'll gobble a turkey hello, but after the first few call and response routines, he'll waddle off to his headquarters in the barn with Mrs. Tom, because well, he's tired. And, he's moving a lot more slowly these days.

This past spring, Mrs. Tom sat on a dozen eggs for about two months. There in the barn, often alone, she sat on her nest with her eyes closed, seemingly asleep. But actually, she was in that altered state called “broody.” During this time, she did not eat or drink or talk.

Well actually, she never talked.

All summer long, Big Tom has walked up and down in front of the red barn. He serves as a kind of sentry, waiting for Mrs. Tom's eggs to hatch. Waiting for his turkey chicks to be born. However, Big Tom is no longer fertile and so, none of Mrs. Tom’s eggs are viable. Not one egg actually hatched. Instead, they went rotten in the nest and that was the end of that. The end of a generation.

Now, here we are at the end of summer. Mrs. Tom has finally come out of the barn to join Big Tom on their sunset strolls along the field. They're quite a pair. Mrs. Tom is skinny from not eating for two months and Big Tom is molting. That’s what turkeys naturally do this time of year. Their feathers start falling off and they look ruffled, as if they have been in a turkey fight.

And in a way he has been in a turkey fight. An ongoing fight with his own inescapable mortality.

Creative Friends--don't be sad. There is a season for all things. Stay present. Take your evening strolls, your feathers molting, your eyes wide open--witness this fragile and precious moment.

Love,

Jamie