Every great journey begins with the first step. At that moment of stepping forward, we cannot know where these steps will take us. A life worth living doesn’t just happen, we have to walk the path, one small step into the unknown at a time.
What on earth does any of that have to do with chickens? Well, I have observed that getting a backyard flock of chickens can be a catalyst for a myriad of changes to a person’s life. Changes that many people had no idea they would make, or even that they wanted to make in the first place. Chickens can be the gateway into a world of doing things for ourselves, in being tied back into the pattern of living beings, of nature. Of eating amazing food that our bodies recognize as delicious, and of wanting more of this. Chickens often trigger us to begin a journey of putting in gardens, of joining food co-ops, of learning how to cook and bake from scratch. They can inspire new dreams of moving to the country in order to have different animals like goats, sheep, or a milking cow.
These are all the visible, ‘doing’ choices that chickens can inspire. But what is more important, more impactful, is how beginning this journey sets us on a path of developing virtues. It can create a cycle of virtue! All cultures have virtues, and virtues are to a large extent universal, and considered to be good for all people. Virtues are qualities that people develop over time, they must be practiced. Our modern world can be a place where it is difficult to practice virtue. We live in a culture where individualism, comfort and instant gratification reign supreme. I will talk about some virtues today that I have taken from The Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible. I’ve chosen these because I am familiar with them, but these are virtues that all cultures and religions hold to be good. I’m using these virtues with examples of how setting out on this path causes us to practice virtue, but also examples of how chickens themselves provide a model of these virtues in practice.
Having a flock of chickens you must care for day after day, no matter the weather, or the inconvenience, having living beings in your care, having an obligation to their needs, allows for the practicing of virtues. And virtues stack up on each other. When you have experienced the joy of newly hatched chicks with their mother, you will want to seek more joy. Maybe you want the joy of pulling carrots from the soil, or plucking a vine-ripened tomato you have nurtured from a seed. The joy of slicing fresh-baked bread from the oven. Seeking the joy in these things means the practice of the other virtues, of patience, self-control, faithfulness, in order to bring these things into being in your life.
When you show up in your own life, when you begin to do things with your own hands. When you understand the true value - which cannot be measured in economic terms - of what the earth will give when you enter into partnership with her, you are in a cycle of virtue. Once you have felt these things, touched them, tasted them, you cannot unsee them. When you get more joy from watching your chickens, from harvesting your crops, than you do from simply consuming, when you understand the inherent value of doing real things for yourself, you can never go back.
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