The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary 317
Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm, gardens and RetrEat centre on day 27 of our latest lock down. This morning the neighbourhood is cold with the winter freeze but soon we will experience the death of winter and the birth of spring, but also this morning in Ballinwillin we mourn the death and passing of Joe Mulcahy our neighbour, a legend in the music business and a founding member of the famous Maurice Mulcahy Band. A band that gave huge enjoyment to thousands of people worldwide. This morning our prayers are with his family, friends and neighbours. Now destiny calls Joe to a place of music where his trumpet will sound again for all our spiritual enjoyment, where his heart will always remain generous, all heavenly doors will open to his musical light as you now quietly befriend your death and you have no need to fear. You are among your own orchestra in the big band with your pure white suit you are now equal to your destiny and nearer to Earths heart. Rest in peace Joe. Continue to pray, bless and power healing to all who need it and wear your smile.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 59
In my childhood days, the well, the river, the ocean, all played a huge roll in my life. I often think about the persistence of the ocean, the courage of the river, always flowing and falling to the mouth of the ocean. I oftentimes believe that the river does what words would love to do.
Good morning everyone once again and welcome to Balllinwillin House Farm and Gardens on this beautiful morning. Listening to the news last evening gave me the topic for our conversation this morning. Water, this sacred source that we take for granted. As an island people we are surrounded by water. As a green island we get more than our fair share, yet last night they were talking about scarcity again. I always believed we should pay for water to gain its respect. On the farm we have our own organic wells and we are so thankful to God for that. In my childhood days, the well, the river, the ocean, all played a huge roll in my life. I often think about the persistence of the ocean, the courage of the river, always flowing and falling to the mouth of the ocean. I oftentimes believe that the river does what words would love to do. Keeping itself to itself no matter where it flows with rhythm and elegance, soothing until its music becomes audible. When we are blessing today let us bless the humility and supply of water, its innocence as it flows without thought or abandon, water vehicle and idiom of all the inner voyaging that keeps us alive. Blessed be the water. Blessed be our early mother. I have a huge and divine respect for all water and their wildness and beauty and our lifetime. I could talk and dream forever on the subject but for now continue to pray, bless and heal each other.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 57
I always notice from living at the foothills of the beautiful Galtee mountain that around this time in May we always get a cold spell of weather and maybe it is Mother Natures way of reminding us that She is in charge and she will send the summer on her terms.
It is a lovely, bright fresh morning here on the farm but it is extremely cold. I always notice from living at the foothills of the beautiful Galtee mountain that around this time in May we always get a cold spell of weather and maybe it is Mother Natures way of reminding us that She is in charge and she will send the summer on her terms. This morning I am going to talk about who we are, the kind of people we are. This conversation was prompted by one of my followers yesterday. In my experience we learn who we really are at a very young age fostered in the home by parents, community and we also learn who we are from the way others acknowledge, accept and appreciate and believe in us. When we are acknowledged and affirmed our confidence grows. When we are accepted in spite of our limitations, we learn to see those limitations in perspective and not to be upset by them but rather rise above them. Our big challenge in life is to love others and respect others and to encourage them into living to their full potential and into growing to their full beauty. So when I say to you everyday to pray, bless and heal each other and be kind to each other you will do so eventually without even noticing. These beautiful practices will save the world.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 54
Today I would like to talk to you about the beauty I saw on the roads yesterday. Trees, shrubs, flowers, rivers, animals in the fields. There is even beauty in the weeds if we take time to look closely at them.
Good morning everyone and welcome once again to Ballinwillin House Farm on day 54. yesterday was a very busy day delivering to the Neighour Food markets and meeting all the fabulous people involved both hosts and suppliers and delivering around to the markets with sustainable organic venison, wild boar and goat meat gives me great pleasure and feeling that we are delivering healthy organic food to people who order our food. It makes a big difference to us and our survival and the survival of our wonderful co-workers. Today I would like to talk to you about the beauty I saw on the roads yesterday. Trees, shrubs, flowers, rivers, animals in the fields. There is even beauty in the weeds if we take time to look closely at them. What we have learned during these 54 days is that we don’t have to do everything. We don’t have to be the fastest or the most efficient. We don’t have to win or even participate in the rat race. What we have a duty to be is ourselves, what we were uniquely created to be. We must learn what our gifts are and we must reach out to everybody with joy and love, blessings and healings. So we must never loose out on an opportunity to admire the beauty on this earth, Mother Earth. This beauty is Gods handwriting “so picture it!”.
Continue to pray, bless and heal each other.
Warmest regards
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 52
I would now this morning, and day 52 of lock down on the farm, I would like to rest in the beauty of their being and in their company, feel the earth breathing with us all. Thank you my friends, my beautiful comrades, my deer, my wild boar, my goats, my hens.
Good morning everyone and welcome to Ballnwillin House Farm once again. Anther beautiful morning on the farm but The Mindful Farmer has had to use all of his mindfulness techniques to bear after I heard the news last night that the first wild boar were born in Donegal last week since 800 years ago. Now, nearly the whole country knows that we have been farming wild boar in Ireland since 1995 and before that in the UK and Hungary. RTÉ hadn’t done their homework here even though they have been on the farm several times filming them but anyway that’s where the mindfulness comes in. The rest of the family had heard the early news bulletin and were trying to figure out how to break the news to me and when they did I got an initial shock, but then I thought “how am I going to break the news to Biffo and Lulu about this and the storm and controversy their Grandma and Grandad caused when they first arrived in Ireland on December 6th 1995 making real history but enough of that. Our wild boar at Ballinwillin House Farm are part of the family now with many pictures on the Hall of Fame honoring them and likewise the deer and goats and all the animals bring me joy, farming and meeting them daily. I learn a lot from animals just being who they are. They live nearer to the earth and deeper within the earths soil. These wild animals know the world in a way we never will. We seldom manage to be where we are but they are always looking out from the here and now. I would now this morning, and day 52 of lock down on the farm, I would like to rest in the beauty of their being and in their company, feel the earth breathing with us all. Thank you my friends, my beautiful comrades, my deer, my wild boar, my goats, my hens.
Continue to pray, bless and heal each other.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 49
It is always nice to speak to you in the morning stillness while the earth is fresh with glistening dew. I always feel that the morning air has more penetrating strength than any other time of the day. It is like getting freshly made bread, it lights a flame with the dew of hope.
Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm to another beautiful Sunday morning where we will go for a little tour of the garden and see what beautiful new flowers we have to see this week and also the ones who have given us such joy but are fading reminding us that we cannot smile all the time either but we could be constant. It is always nice to speak to you in the morning stillness while the earth is fresh with glistening dew. I always feel that the morning air has more penetrating strength than any other time of the day. It is like getting freshly made bread, it lights a flame with the dew of hope. Now this morning we have seen all the lovely plants and trees but to truly see something we must look at it for a long time. It is not just good enough to passively say “I have seen this beautiful garden”. We must be the things we see, we must get to know that tree, that flower, look at its colour until its red or pink or blue becomes as real as you can hear it. Imagine the world within the buds, blossoms, leaves and flowers. We must take our time and touch the very peace they come from. If you love nature then why are you asleep? Have a beautiful, restful Sunday. I feel a lovely, mindful retreat coming on soon at Ballinwillin House Farm. It seems the perfect thing to look forward to once we are back to normal.
Continue to pray for normality, continue to bless and heal each other
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 46
nature will always balance things out but we must be listening and when we listen to Mother Earth on this farm, on any farm, the harmony of the farm reflects the eternal peace that all human beings long for.
Good morning everyone and welcome to Ballinwillin House Farm. Well, we got plenty of rain yesterday and during the night. The fields, the land and the earth is rejoicing. Every year, no matter what the conditions are on the farm during any of the seasons and they will vary, be it too much rain, too many storms, too much sun - now there’s a situation, but nature will always balance things out but we must be listening and when we listen to Mother Earth on this farm, on any farm, the harmony of the farm reflects the eternal peace that all human beings long for.
As a farmer you become very aware of mortality as you deal with it each day on the farm and we accept that and understand all its meanings. But there is always hope on the farm and it is believing that there is a beauty and meaning in our life. Right up to the last moment and when we depart this earth hope expands by our re-joining our ancestral and spiritual ancestors. What have we learned? We have learned that we find beauty in the ordinary and suddenly we realise that no such person or thing is ordinary.
Go forth today to bless, pray and heal each other and keep smiling
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 45
Some of these trees are nearly 300 years old and it is sad to see them go but the storms in January and February were just too much for them to bare anymore. But we have planted new ones in their memory, just think how much will happen in the world in the next 300 years and what changes we will see
Good morning everyone and welcome to another new day on the farm at Ballinwillin House. Yesterday we had quite a busy day on the farm, fencing, post driving and wire erecting and cutting up an old tree that had fallen on the fences. Some of these trees are nearly 300 years old and it is sad to see them go but the storms in January and February were just too much for them to bare anymore. But we have planted new ones in their memory, just think how much will happen in the world in the next 300 years and what changes we will see. That’s what fascinates me about nature and the farm and how nature and the farm welcomed our change to organic status going back the years and also how the trees, land and nature welcomed the change to farming deer and wild boar on the farm. It all seemed to fit in a rhythm with nature and evolved seamlessly when we decided to do so back in the 1980’s. My father used to say that every beginning opens up the gifts of growth that are stored up for us and to refuse to begin and take that risk can be an act of self neglect. Wise words? I think so. Risk can be our greatest ally. If we are to live a truly creative life we always need to look critically at where we presently are, have we become stagnant? When I decided on this farming venture the beginning of course was innocent and I had no full idea of where it would lead me but it led me all over the world and back here to the farm seduced into growth and saluting the challenge to begin. Never be afraid to begin.
Continue to pray, bless and heal each other.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick
The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 38
Do we bless Mother Earth as we walk over her Earths carpet? Do we walk softly and reverently? Do we bless her imagination, her warmth, her patience, her stillness, her nursing ability? Do we thank Mother Earth for the grounding of home? For holding our feet firmly on the catwalk of magnetic energy? Do we salute her sublime stillness that can fill a patient heart?
Day 38 in lockdown at Ballinwillin House Farm. Good morning to you all. A nice, pleasant morning here on the farm. Yesterday was a day for getting wet and several times at that but all in a days work.
Today is International Mother Earth Day. Now here is a subject near and dear to my heart and I promise not to get too carried away by this heading. But this heading has more meaning than any of us can even try to understand. Do we bless Mother Earth as we walk over her Earths carpet? Do we walk softly and reverently? Do we bless her imagination, her warmth, her patience, her stillness, her nursing ability? Do we thank Mother Earth for the grounding of home? For holding our feet firmly on the catwalk of magnetic energy? Do we salute her sublime stillness that can fill a patient heart? Do we notice the wonder of a seed that with Springs warmth is charged to burst forth and dream unashamedly? Do we acknowledge her kindness and fear her rage and ask for her forgiveness for not listening to her? For when she knocks on the door of our lives she is so silent that her sound is no louder than the beating of your heart.
Continue to pray, bless and heal each other and today being Mother Earth Day look for a flower, a plant or a tree and say thank you to our Mother of Nature.
The Mindful Farmer
Patrick