From Joy: “I have a unique view on life because I nearly died – twice. For me, when I came to that instant to decide to stay or not, the very thing that drew me back to fight to stay alive was what I was grateful for in life. I have learned a lot of things about the world. I have learned that even though humans scare me, I can be brave to step forward and open up a new perspective to have them in my world. I have learned that safety is something I can nurture by learning to trust. When I trust more, my world becomes safer. I used to think I had to find safety and then learn how to trust. But actually, it is the other way around. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn this valuable lesson. I am grateful to be alive.”
From Lindy: “I am grateful for being allowed to grow old. Some of you may think that is an odd thing to be grateful for. But if you were a goat, you’d understand that not all goats grow old. Many are not given that opportunity. I think humans need to look at the fact that life is a gift. Every single day you are alive, you are blessed. I watch so many curse that they are growing old. When you should be celebrating your right to do so. Every day is an opportunity for all of us to discover why it is we are alive on this very day. That is what I like to do.”
From Lorinda: “I believe that we should never have to look too far to find things to be grateful for. If we can’t find anything close by, then for sure we need to move to where the scenery is better. The smallest things in my world can bring me the most gratitude. A loving hand. A gentle touch. The sun. Food. My friends. All of these things make my life enriched with joy and love. I try to share this with people when they come to visit me. Many times, people feel sorry for me because I have crippled legs. But, there is absolutely nothing to feel sorry about for me. I am grateful to be alive.”
From Mabel: “I may be old but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a life to live. I am grateful for more things than I can possibly list. I love my friends and will fiercely guard their hearts with mine. I love my barn. I love my people. I love my world. I may be old, but I have a lot of love still left to give. And I intend to make the most of it. I am grateful for every second I have and every breath I take. I hope you are too!”
From O’Malley: “Oh, my goodness! I have so much to say and never enough time to say it. This is what I have learned so far in life. It is always better to know that no matter what you think you know, there is always more to learn. Sometimes we teach, but always we learn. It is important to know when you have something to say, and when you just need to be quiet and listen. A true conversation involves both speaking and listening. Now, those humans who know me well, and there are several, are reading this now and thinking… really?? But listen to O’Malley here. Because people sometimes write me off as another pretty face. But if you really listen to my silences, you will know that I know a lot of things and I also know that you know a lot of things. I’m willing to listen to what you know. All I ask is that you listen to what I know. And if you think that was confusing, then you need to read it again.”
From Kernel: “I am grateful for my friends who have helped me figure out how to get around in this world and operate in this body. I feel lots of things around me that many others don’t seem to notice. I know when someone isn’t feeling well or when someone is hurting inside but can’t show it on the outside. And I want to make people feel safe because people have helped me be safe. I like when people come over and visit with me. I see them for who they are and I try to get them to see what I see. When people put walls around their heart to survive, I can feel those walls. I understand them as I had to do that too. But when you learn to take the walls down and know that it is ok to be yourself, that is a priceless gift. I am still learning and trying to understand myself. But if I can help just one other being find their way out of their darkness, then I have accomplished a lot.”
From Tessie: “I wish that everyone could feel the gentle kindness of love in their lives. When I curl up with my favorite humans or other cats, it makes me purr with joy. I often try to send that purr out into the world to find other cats who aren’t so lucky. I once was alone and lost myself. I know the feeling. And I also know the feeling of finding a home and a place to be safe and loved. Life is not simple. It sometimes is very complicated. I think the easier we can make it for one another then the better we all will be. It seems so simple really.”
From TLC: “I am grateful for spending a lifetime of learning to be who I am without someone trying to make me who I am not. I know I should say more, but truly that says everything. I see other horses come in here with broken spirits. It is actually painful to watch them. It’s like they have forgotten who they are and how to be in this world. It is very unfair for someone to take that away from another. We should all be here to witness and share the beauty and truth of one another. People think I am a grumpy horse. But actually, I’ve just been quiet because I’ve been watching and noticing things. I wanted to learn all I could about many things. I am older now. And I am oh so much wiser than when I came into this form. And I am grateful to be learning all I can.”
From Lucy: “There is not a day that goes by that I am not grateful for what is made possible to me in my life. I cherish the sun each day, even when we can’t see it through the rain. I love the air that I breathe. I love the grass and the trees and the bugs. I honor all who I meet as being my fellow travelers and friends. What I don’t understand is why people think this is most unusual. If you find this to be strange or unusual, then maybe you need to stop and be grateful for these things too. Why would you not? I think people have forgotten to really look around themselves with wonder. They keep needing more and more shaking to get their attention. You aren’t living if you do not allow yourself to be moved by a sunset or awakened deep inside by the simplistic beauty of a flower. All of life around you is full of awe and wonder. I think you should go find it.”
From Trevor: “I live life by one basic principle. Pile everything as high as you can on my list of things to experience! I want to do it all. I want to climb to great heights. I want to explore all there is to know. I want to greet every person I can with enough enthusiasm that it makes them want more. I want to hear laughter. I want to roll in the sun. I want to hunt beneath the stars. I want to pretend I’m a mighty lion. I want to dream big. I want to do it all. And I am grateful for every second of my life to reach my goal.”
From Meloudee: “You can never be too old to learn new things in life. I have been known to be a bit difficult and stubborn through my early years. Ok, through the middle ones too. And…. Yes, even somewhat in my later years. But, life always gives you the opportunity to try something else. For me, I got an illness that causes me lots of problems -especially with my feet. If I want to feel better, I need to let people help me. That was never high on my list of things I wanted to accept or do. So I was very difficult for people to catch me or do much of anything with me. So, for me to feel better, I had to learn to put my issues aside and try to work with my human friends. You could say that my illness helped me to grow – and that maybe instead of it being something bad in my life – it instead became an opportunity and a chance for me to grow. I am grateful for that.”
From Misty Mew: “I am grateful for everything and every day. People keep wondering why I haven’t been adopted yet. But they are a little slow at picking up here that I don’t want to go anywhere. This is my home. Right here. Because I have a job. I am the official greeter cat at the farm. It is important to me that people feel welcomed, not just by the humans here, but also by the animals. We like seeing people visit. We know heavy hearts walk in among us and we try to lighten their load before they leave. Why would I ever want to give that job up? So, my message to you is this, we’d love to have you come visit and I will be looking for you, but please don’t try to take me home. I have found my home right here, doing the work I came to do, touching as many hearts as I can while I am blessed to be in this fabulous cat body I call home.”
From Brandy: “When I stand out in my pasture with my friends, I am reminded of the fact that I almost didn’t survive to get here to this place of peace. As my body has learned to trust again that compassion and kindness can survive the harshest of treatments, I am able to reach out to others to comfort them. All of us face dark times. All of us forget that we are stronger than we realize. But when we forget to reach out to a hand that is offering help, that is when we are most lost. I am grateful to all who have helped me. And I am most grateful to be able to now reach out to others and help them. My heart is filled with loving all I have in this life. Where once I thought there was no hope, I now understand that hope is flowing in abundance. I intend to keep that hope moving forward. And I am grateful for all who want to walk with me.”
From Flora: “I originally came to this farm with three other goat friends. We came from a very traumatic beginning. We lost some of our friends in very hard circumstances. It was tough to watch and I try not to remember their loss. But we got here to this farm safely. And the four of us had each other. Even when we didn’t always get along, our common path and the shared pain was an unbreakable bond. In the past couple of years, one by one my friends have died. I am the last one remaining. But this time, their deaths were not traumatic like our other friends before. Because this time we were all surrounded by love. My point is that love made the difference. I think of my friends with great peace now. I never feel alone. Love makes the difference. I am most grateful to have found this truth. And I thank all of my human friends for letting us discover this gift.”
From Cora: “To be alive is a special opportunity. I have lived in the midst of darkness, where life was not seen as a treasure and where animals were not seen as having feelings. Yet, I still perceived that the humans had feelings. I didn’t see them as evil. But I saw them as being lost. To forget that life is sacred no matter if you are a tiny plant or a mighty tree, or a buzzing insect, or the tallest of animals alive is a shame. All of life is sacred. I am grateful to live in a place that honors that. I will be bringing a baby into this world. It is far better to know that she will know those who understand her life as being as sacred as I feel it is, then to feel that her life wouldn’t matter. I am grateful for life.”
From Charlie: “Sunshine. I am most grateful for sunshine. When I feel the sun warm my body, especially on a cold day, it reminds me how connected I feel to everything around me. My cells soak up the sunshine and then I store that within my body. When my human friends come in at night, I then spread my sunshine to them to help brighten the end of their day. I like making people feel joyful. Then I know I have done a good job and it’s been a good day.”
From Eloise: “My list of things to be grateful for is so long that you don’t have time to read it. People need to make more time to be grateful. I’m finding this to be a trend. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. You don’t take time to enjoy what you are doing. For example, when my food comes, I savor every single bite. I bet you that you don’t even remember what you just ate or what it tasted like. I know what each and every morsel tasted like. I know when it smells like it’s going to rain outside or snow. I know when the flowers are going to open. I can even tell different grasses apart simply because I know what it smells like around me. When you are truly grateful for the little everyday things that sustain you, you will start to feel great joy over the smallest parts of your daily life. That is true gratitude. I know I have found mine!”
From Dusty: “I am grateful for times when it is quiet. Sometimes humans make an awful lot of noise. I wonder how they keep functioning like that actually. I like it when it gets really quiet. I love hearing the breeze in the trees or the rain on a quiet day. I love the stillness of the nighttime and the softness of the winter. Actually, when it is really quiet, I also can hear the gentle breathing of my other cat friends in our room. There is something about that simple sound that brings such peace to me. There is peace in knowing others are breathing with you in the same quiet and that together we are creating a simple kind of peace in the world. I wish that people could find more quiet and stillness in their day. I think they’d be a lot happier.”
From Belle: “I am grateful for my freedom to live life the way I wanted to live it. Most people would have decided I was quite useless and would have ended my life as I would have become an inconvenience. I am grateful to live in a place where I can grow old and frail and not have to be the perfect horse or to have ever had to perform to ideals that I could not achieve. I was simply allowed to be me. I am grateful for every opportunity of kindness that has ever been shown to me. I am grateful for the patience that has been given my way. But mostly, I am grateful for the chance to live my life looking for the good in each day – and to have found so much of it.”
From Carley: “I may be tiny, but I am not insignificant. If you think I’m small, you’ll second guess that when you hear my huge voice! I am bigger inside than I look. And I want people to know that just because some of us are little, doesn’t mean that we matter less. I think people need to stop looking at things as if some are greater than others and that those who are lesser should be scorned. Life is too precious to waste on such things. I don’t understand it myself. I think each one of us has something special to offer. I love reaching out to touch people. And I love it even more when they appreciate that I do that. That means they care enough to know more about me. I am grateful to have a chance to be seen for being me.”
From Minnie: “This has been a year of learning for me. I moved here to a new home away from my original flock of sheep. Life here is different. I just kind of hid out in the flock and was fine. But here, I live with one other sheep, Daisy. Suddenly, I couldn’t just hide anymore. And I had to find a way to participate with others. I am just learning how to be calm in my body and to think before I leap. That hasn’t been easy for me. But I’m grateful to Daisy for helping me see that not everything in life has to be challenging or frightening. And I’m learning to trust more and have fun. I’m grateful to be here. And I’m grateful to learn about friendship.”
From Izzy: “Having just one eye does not mean that I see only half of the world. It says instead that I have to see twice as much with the one I have. You can spend your life thinking you have less than what you wish for or you could start understanding that you can create more of what you wish for when you are already grateful for what you have. That is what I see from my one eye. And I think it is pretty amazingly powerful.”
From Felix: “Sometimes I like to stand outside in the sun and close my eyes and take in all that I can around me. When I can be still enough inside to hear the wings of birds flapping in the air as they pass by me, then I know I am truly focused in the moment. I am grateful for every minute I am here and for the ability to share with everyone around me. I am also grateful for hugs from my human friends. I love giving hugs as it makes us all remember how to be focused on what is important in life. I am blessed.”
From Mack: “I am most grateful to have found my purpose in life. If you talk to the humans who have known me, they would tell you that my history was that I was lost in the woods and mountains for over six months – lost. And it is indeed a true story and an event in my life. But the truth is, I was actually lost before that. But during that dark period of my life, left alone, abandoned and unwilling to reach out, is when I was actually finding myself in the grandest way. Because I learned eventually that the only way I could heal was indeed to reach out. I reached out a paw and found a hand reaching back. And I began to understand that I had a purpose. That purpose turned into helping other lost souls find their own strength to reach out for what they need to heal in their lives. I will continue to reach out a paw to those who I feel are lost in the same wilderness that I was. And together, we will come down from the mountains, out of the woods and we will find their purpose together. For this, I am forever grateful.”