Death Sustains Life
A rainy weekend. An inch and a half of steady showers softened up the fields for a few days until freezing temperatures firmed the ground back up again. It didn’t get much above 20 yesterday. The cold is one thing, but the wind is what makes it rough. We’re thankful for our old drafty farmhouse, but when that cold wind gets to whipping, we might as well just open up the windows. Even with our outdoor wood stove burning wide open through the night, the house was a toasty 52 degrees when we woke Thursday morning. Nothing an extra pair of socks can’t cure. Ha. Thankfully the house has warmed and the water has thawed since then.
On Monday morning Amy helped me get some cows in while the kids were left to work on their math and spelling. I hauled 9 head to our processor in NC to harvest. Though taking animals to slaughter is an ongoing reality of life on the farm, it always comes with pause. After having fed and looked after these animals for the past couple years, the harvest day is necessary but not easy.
As farmers, we try to give our animals the best life we can. Not just a life that’s best for the one, but for all life as a whole. Without the farmer, these cows would have no life. There are no wild cows running around in national forests. We not only give them life but a good life. With natural forage, feed, and water always available. While no one objects to giving these animals a good life, the justification for it is driven by the end. Without the harvest, there would be no good life on the farm. We sustain their lives. And in return they sustain ours.
Every time we harvest chickens on the farm or drop off cows and pigs at the processor, I always pray a prayer of gratitude for the lives of the animals and for the opportunity to care for them. And I pray that their life and death will bring healthy nourishment and blessings to all who are sustained by it.
No pigs harvested this trip. Twenty some little piggies added to the farm this week.
Behind on my feeding and trying to get ahead with a wintry forecast, I fed 32 rolls of hay on Tuesday. I hope the grass greens up before the hay runs out. Lots of winter still ahead.
Lots of order filling on Wednesday. Amy and I delivered herd shares and orders to Bristol and Kingsport yesterday evening. Date #1 for 2026 in the books. Lots of coolers to fill today for herd share deliveries to Marion and Abingdon tomorrow. Knoxville delivery coming up on Monday.
On the road to the processor and while feeding hay on the tractor, I’ve been on a C.G. Jung kick lately. Farming makes a man think a lot about life. An honest look at life makes a man think a lot about death. Here’s a few quotes from Carl Jung’s ON LIFE AFTER DEATH.
“A categorical question is being put to him, and he is under an obligation to answer it. To this end, he ought to have a myth about death. For reason shows him nothing but the dark pit into which he is descending. Myth, however, can conjure up other images for him, helpful and enriching pictures of life in the land of the dead. If he believes in them or greets them with some measure of credence, he is being just as right or just as wrong as someone who does not believe in them. But while the man who despairs marches towards nothingness, the one who has placed his faith in the archetype follows the tracks of life and lives right into his death. Both to be sure remain in uncertainty, but the one lives against his instincts, the other with them.”
“And so it is, death is indeed a fearful piece of brutality. There is no sense pretending otherwise. It is brutal not only as a physical event but far more so, psychically. A human being is torn away from us and what remains is the icy stillness of death. There no longer exists any hope of a relationship. For all the bridges have been smashed at one blow. Those who deserve a long life are cut off in the prime of their years, and good-for-nothings live to a ripe old age. This is a cruel reality which we have no right to sidestep. The actual experience of the cruelty and wontedness of death can so embitter us that we conclude there is no merciful God, no justice, and no kindness. From another point of view, however, death appears as a joyful event. In the light of eternity, it is a wedding… the soul attains, as it were, its missing half. It achieves wholeness.”
“When I die, my deeds will follow along with me. That is how I imagine it. I will bring with me what I have done. In the meantime, it is important to ensure that I do not stand at the end with empty hands.”
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite, can we avoid fixing our interests upon futilities and on all kinds of goals which are not of real importance.”
“In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody. And if we do not embody that, life is wasted.”
Jesus embodied the essential. Bridging the gap between the finite and the infinite. Not just that he may have life in its fullest but so that we can as well.
Have a good week.
Will