"MARMA"

February 7, 2013

(On loving a chicken)

Marma is a pet chicken, her name is Marma.  Got her when she was just a few weeks old, she lived with Pete (the dog) in the house for the first two months.  Had to keep her on my lap, in a towel most of the time so she didn't poop everywhere but since it was summer and fall we were outside a lot.  


Finally got her a chicken diaper off the internet.  That worked for a while - but she hated it and eventually she was put in the chicken house with the big girls.  She made friends quickly with two other birds and they kept her close.  She took walks everyday with Pete and even would follow us down the road for awhile until she started liking food too much and would stop for long periods of time.  She sat with me in Meditation until she was 3 months old, 3 times a day.  


She is aware, maybe not aware that she is a chicken (what is a chicken anyway but a word we place on an animal so that we can all pretend to agree that we know what it is).  I didn't know what she was or is ... had not ever had a chicken anywhere but on my plate.  The thoughts were to get a chicken and let it tell me who it is. … and what happened … she taught that she is no different than me - she is just in a in a body that people call a "chicken" just like I am in one called "human" and Pete in a body that we call "dog" but that we are all the same under the skin.  What annimates all of those things chicken, dog, human (and you reading this as well) - is the Same underneath the skin and this has deepened in knowing Marma.  Who knew a chicken could reveal so much, reveal who one truly is and yet she has.


Marma has taken road trips … she has even been to the gates of burning man, she has been to the ocean in both California and Oregon … she has been to two concerts … the Avett Brothers and Brandie Carlile, she has sat with Pete and I in cemetaries and campgrounds all over California and Oregon and she has laid with us on the floor of the redwood forest as we listened to the wildlife come to life when no one else was around and she didn't cluck...not a peep and we all laid so still and were gifted an amazing treat.  She has been attacked by dogs (took over a day to recover from that and she even had puncture wounds) she was grabed by a hawk and I screamed so loud that it scared the hawk it and it dropped her (after shitting on her (literally scared the shit out of him) lol. 

She is quite amazing and see how differently other people look at her, because normally she is on their plate and not walking around town (we now live in town and she still walks with Pete and I ... accept now she has to be carried and when she has to poop she wiggles in my arms to let me know to put her down).  There is an awareness in her, that people do not want to see because they don't want to look at that they eat her. 

In all times of history, when things go a rye, people turn to canibalism, we are just eaters … so I don't really care that people eat chickens (it's not my thing ... to do any longer but I used to … before realizing what was being eating).  There used to be no respect and/or regard for what was being ate, or how one was getting on the plate (mass production) and who had given their life to sustain mine - Marma.  Marma has shown me all of that. 

Had no idea one could fall in love with a chicken … but it happened.  She has show/revealed that we are much more alike than we are different.  I am so grateful and in debited to her ... you don't get to pick and choose who you fall in love with ... just stuck my hand in a basket full of chickens and lifted one out ... named her "Marma" and brought her home ... she could have been any in the bunch ... now she is like no other.  She has shown/revealed that all chickens are just like her ... they just haven't been picked by someone that is ready to fall in Love.

"May all Beings awaken to itSelf."
The Avett Brothers - February 7
(click link above)