Sheep Aren't Stupid

“I've learnt in life—you just have to be whatever you feel you are, and then you will do well. If you remove the hang ups that hold you back you will do things to the best of your ability.”

Kate Stone

Sheep Aren’t Stupid

The sun was filtered through gray, thin clouds when I got up and out this morning.  The temperature was very similar.  It was a morning in winter, it wasn’t a real bright day, nor was it a real cold day.  But no matter, my animals were doing what they do every day.  They were huddled together, near their feeding station, waiting for me to provide them with food.

I threw hay into the manger and then began to fill their water tank.  As the water gushed into the metal container I began to think of lessons I’ve learned from being a rancher and more specifically thought about what Kate Stone taught me about her experience as a sheepherder on a large station in Australia.

Kate reminisced, “I ended up on a farm with about twenty-two thousand sheep.  It was about one hundred degrees there all the time! The sheep were the most important thing.  We’d go out to gather them up, to bring them back to the homestead.  We’d do this using horses, using motorbikes and building fences and the sheep would make it all the way back to the shearing shed for the different seasons.  What I learned was, I thought at the time, like everybody else that sheep were pretty stupid because they wouldn’t do what we wanted them to do, what I realize now, looking back, is the sheep weren’t stupid at all.  We put them in an environment where they didn’t want to be!  And, they didn’t’ do what we wanted them to do!  So the challenge was trying to get them to do what we wanted them to do by listening to the weather, the lay of the land, and creating things that would let the sheep flow and go where we wanted them to go.”

The water continued to flow from the hose held in my hand.  My animals were munching on their breakfast.  My dog was doing what she always does; run up and down the fence line barking at the cows and horse on the other side of the fence.

Her barking didn’t change the behavior of the cows.  They were doing exactly what they wanted to do.  They were eating! They knew the dog couldn’t get through the fence to nip at their heals!

Kate’s message continued to nip at my mind, “Another bunch of years later I ended up at Cambridge University doing a Ph.D. in physics. And, my Ph.D. was to move electrons around one at a time.  I realize it was pretty much the same as moving sheep around.  It really is!  You do it by changing an environment!”

My largest steer was standing right in front of me.  “I couldn’t push him out of the way if I tried.” I said to myself.  He weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of two thousand pounds right now.  But, I’ve changed his environment by giving him food so he’s moved himself.  I could never force him to move anywhere he didn’t want to go!

Kate went on in my mind, “That’s been a big lesson to me.  You can’t act on any object.  You change its environment and the object will flow.”

I was standing in the middle of one of the most important learning moments in my life.  Yet, I wouldn’t have even taken note of it had Kate not said to me, “A lot of my learning came from being on the farm.  Because when I was working on the farm we had to use what was around us.  We’d have to use the environment.  There was no such thing, as something can’t be done.  Because you’re in an environment where if you can’t do what you need to do, you can die and I’d seen that sort of thing happen.”

I thought back to last winter when my largest steer, a real mean son-of-a-gun, had me and my daughter Kilee leaping up and over the fence on several occasions to save our own lives!  We were trying to make him go in a corral he didn’t want to go in.  It took me several days before I was smart enough to put hay where I wanted him to go so he would take himself there!

Kate went on in my mind, “It’s like going back to the farm.”

I stood, hose in hand, thinking,  “It’s about how to let myself become the person I want to become rather than trying to force myself into something I really don’t want to be.  I need to make sure I put myself in an environment, and with people, that will allow me to flow into the person I really want to be naturally!

Kate said it best, “I've learnt in life—you just have to be whatever you feel you are, and then you will do well. If you remove the hang ups that hold you back you will do things to the best of your ability.”

Take Your Stool and Begin to Play

Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out?
- Ian

Take Your Stool and Begin to Play

Have you ever heard the saying, “Marches to the beat of a different drummer?” It holds a warm spot in my heart because when I was a child I wanted to be like my father who was a drummer. He loved big band music and played his drum set in our basement. I would listen to him playing and would marvel at his skill in using the different drums and symbols contained in his set.


When he was playing with his whole demeanor would change. He would become lost in his movements as if transported to another realm while being swallowed alive by the music. Yet, he was still there with his arms flailing and his feet taping.


I loved it when he would take his talent and combine it with other instruments to form a band. During such “gigs” he became more than just a drummer; he was a member of a band making amazing music. As I listened to the music I noticed that the drums became the generator of the rhythm, the pulse of the musical gift, as they blended with the other instruments. This has ever been the case for me through all the years.


It has been many, many years since hearing the drums from my childhood. But I was thrilled to be transported back to those days when I recently went to a family wedding. Upon my arrival at the reception I was greeted by a group of young musicians playing jazz. My father was there and I watched him look on with wanting eyes.


I wasn’t the only one who noticed the desire in his eyes. Because, before long, he was invited to take his seat with the band and his transformation was revealed before my eyes once again. There he was, unique to the band because of his years. And, there he was, becoming one with the music and the other band members regardless of their differences!


It was their difference that made the music so interesting and so intricate. It was their difference that gave new life and meaning to everyone hearing the sound of their music.
I saw only one person with quiet reservation looking on as my father played. He was the contemporary drummer in the band. I’m pretty sure he had the feeling that he had been replaced. My father certainly didn’t look as if he intended to yield his prized position within a short space of time. Perhaps the young drummer had the chance to feel what my father has been feeling for a while; his place and time with the band had drawn to a close.


But, it wasn’t time for the young drummer to be so isolated. Soon my father yielded up the stool and handed over the sticks to their rightful owner. The drummers had changed, but the music remained magical!


Later, my friend Ian made the comment to me that he had witnessed a transformation in my father during the exchange. We had been talking about people and their unique abilities not long before. During that conversation I loved his question to another friend, “Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you were born to stand out!”


Just like the drummer has a unique talent that stands out, yet still adds to the beauty of the band’s music, each one of us has something to give the world that only we can give. Discover what you love to do; make sure it makes you feel as if you want to flail your arms and tap your toes with joy every time you wake up in the morning. When find it, you’ll know you’re ready to take your place in the band and make beautiful music. The music of the universe needs you! Please take your stool and start to play!