Caring for Others-If you aren't in the Freezer then you are doing just Fine

How Are You?  It is a question asked all too often by folks just making conversation.  Do we really want to know how someone is?  If we don't then we should come up with a larger vocabulary of "niceties" to exchange.  Like maybe "Good to see you today".  Unless we really DO want to know, hear, and have to time to listen to how someone really is.  The world would be a better place if we all took time to exchange enough transparency to ask with integrity, How are you? and share a transparent answer or have time to listen with empathy.  Now that, my friends, is a point to ponder.

On the subject of How Are You?, I bring your attention to the photo above of me and my good friend Iris.  Iris is an Emu.  Sadly, Iris has never been featured as one of the most fascinating people.  Though not a "people", she really is.  Iris's home is in Chicago, Illinois.  She lives on a farm there with some horses, too many roosters and hens to count, a donkey, and a plethora of other animals.  In recent years, I have had the pleasure of visiting Iris each summer.  When we pull up in the driveway, my friend, Lisa, her Aunt Joan, and our children will go over to the fence, start calling for Iris and she will start thumping.  An Emu's natural noise sounds like a drum.  A BIG BASS DRUM.  It is the oddest sound I have ever heard.  Iris generally hides in the brush, but when we call her, she thumps and then ambles over and peeks out from the tall grass.  This past summer when Lisa and I went to Chicago, we left the children at home because we were going to see a Woman about a Horse(Definitely a story for another day).  So when we arrived at Iris' home, I got out and went by myself to call for her.  She came right over and sat down and let me sit down beside her.  It was hilarious when I got out my Iphone and was trying to take pictures of the two of us together.  It was as though Iris was smiling.  Iris likes to wear a birthday hat at birthday parties.  She has quite a personality.  The farm only has this one Emu.  I asked the owner of the farm why Iris was the only Emu and their answer was this simple:  "Well, we did not intend to have Iris, but we recognized quickly that she was quite the entertainer so we decided to keep her here on the farm.  Her brothers and sisters are in the freezer."  

My friends, when asked how you are doing each day, the answer is as simple as Iris the Emu.  If you are not in the freezer you are doing just fine!