Norman Rockwell’s oil painting: Blacksmith’s Boy-Heel and Toe was painted as an illustration for Edward W. O’Brien’s story by the same name in the 1940 issue of The Saturday Evening Post magazine
In 2003, local artist Wayne Fettro painted a partial reproduction on the side of this building in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It can use a little touching up but I like it just the way it is.
“Watch the clouds. They will teach you about the world of form.” Eckhart Tolle
“The training of the mind is an art. If this can be considered art, one’s life is art.” Dalai Lama
It’s been said that if you choose a job you love you will never have to work a day in your life. But I think that applies more to a job like a motorcycle tester than an Amish farmer.
Wendell Berry wrote: “There are only two reasons to farm: because you have to, and because you love to. The ones who choose to farm choose for love.” I wonder if the horses feel that way too?
“For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” T.S. Eliot
“What is reality? An icicle forming in fire.” Dōgen
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called Without Hope which confused a lot of people, I hope this clears it up.
“Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment.” Pema Chodron
And to simplify: “Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self. When we don’t see the self as self, what do we have to fear?” Lao Tzu
“There’s a metal train that’s a mile long and at the very back end a lightning bolt struck her. How long till it reaches and kills the driver, provided that he’s a good conductor?” Bo Burnham, New Math
After shoveling off my car this morning it began snowing again when I went out to grab a cup of coffee. I noticed this horse at our local laundromat and stopped to say hello but he did not look happy.
He was either furious that winter was back with two more days of snow and ice predicted or he accidentally ate some laundry soap. The owner and her two kids were waiting to leave as I took a few photos and I didn’t ask.
So here in Lancaster, P.A. March may go in like a foaming horse but I seriously doubt it will go out like a lamb. I don’t think their legs are strong enough to pull a buggy and three people.
I stopped to photograph this Amish farmer getting his field ready for planting and it was such a tender moment that tears came to my eyes. It might have been the near freezing temperature and biting wind, but the scene reminded me of many things.
Time passing so quickly, the changing of the seasons, the beauty of spring and the hard work of these farmers. As the smell of horse manure rose into the air, I thought of the show Green Acres, and Oliver deciding that working with his hands was more important than working as a lawyer in the big city.
I would say that farm livin’ is the life for me, keep Manhattan just give me that countryside. But I don’t like getting muddy, or working in a field all day, or having obsessive photographers standing there taking my picture while I’m trying to do my job.
