Belinda

I know a female longboarder called Belinda Baggs. She's great. She's very nice and she has a beautiful and unique style on a longboard. I got to spend a few days with her a while ago, when she stayed at mine for a few days with her husband to be, 5 and something years ago, back when I was a professionnal photographer living in Biarritz, in the French Basque country. We did a photoshoot, we went to Spain, I ended up driving them all the way to Toulouse airport so they could get on a plane to England with all their surfboards.

The Belinda I communicated with last night is very different. She is a very, very, very beautiful 11 year old brown and white lady, with big long horns. She has a bit of an attitude and a bit of a stubborn temper about her. I think she would make a very good French Madame!:)

I first noticed her last week, I was watching her being milked and I could feel that she wasn't happy and didn't want to be there. I promised myself to go and see her later. I did ask the farmer about her and he did confirm to me that she was miserable and had a bit of a temper. I have been thinking about her regularly ever since. I went back to the farm last night to communicate with her. Our conversation lasted quite a while, she had a lot to share, and a few other cows joined in too. I realised in the middle of the non verbal conversation that we were having a meeting! the way they were all coming towards me adding their opinion to the conversation! it was quite hard to keep up with them as I wanted to make sure I could remember as much as I possibly could from our conversation. Next time: I must bring a notepad and a pen and take notes. I did write everything down later on last night, and I realised that the more I was writing the more the conversation was coming back to me easily. I'm not sharing the whole conversation here. I'm only sharing what feels appropriate for the time being.

Belinda told me that she was fed up with being pregnant and having babies every year because it's a real emotional roller coaster, with all the hormones changing during the pregnancy - birth - lactation cycle. She said that she would like to retire from being a dairy cow, she needs to have her own space and more time for something else. I asked her what she would do if she had time to herself and her answer was : I just want to be.

She says that doesn't like it in the barn (the cows are now in the barn for winter) because there are cows everywhere she goes and she would like to have her own space. She is a bit claustrophobic and that's why she doesn't like being milked : the area she has to stand on is too narrow and she needs to feel that she has space around her, otherwise she gets nervous. She doesn't like being stroked or touched especially not on the head. She has this invisible force field around her head and she really hates it if you enter that zone. She then shakes her head from side to side to make sure you back off and you don't want to be in the way of these beautiful big long horns that she has!

She told me that doesn't like changes. With new calves being born, some older cows will leave, she feels that she is about to be taken somewhere, and she is worried because she doesn't know where. She asked me:"Where do the cows who leave the farm go to?" - Silence -

I asked her what she thought about the farmer and she told me (and a few other cows joined in) that she loves him. He does care for them and looks after them in a very loving way. He is on their side and stands up for them. They trust him to do what's best for them as he has their best interest in mind.

They told me that they want to be celebrated and recognized. Humans take, take, take... but don't give that much in return. The world is changing and they feel that they are in a position to bring something else to human kind other than milk : Healing.

"We do like humans but they are moving too fast. They need to slow down! We would like them to see us and acknowledge us. We see some humans making a big fuss over their dogs, but they don't even see us, they just walk past us without looking at us, as if we were invisible! We would like to have more of a pet status. We don't understand why humans make such a fuss over certain animals but ignore and don't seem to care about others. It doesn't make sense. Humans can do great things and we have a lot to bring them. They need to listen more and slow down".

Belinda knows that she is reaching the end of her "career' and she is worried about what's going to happen to her. She told me she last had babies 1 year ago, but never really enjoyed motherhood.

The farmer told me afterwards that he was supposed to have made the phone call to get her sent to slaughter for the last few days but he didn't for some reason, which is probably how she knew, she would have picked up on his thoughts and on his behaviour towards her. She has a lot of insights to share with us, regarding the farm and its future, and the relationship between cows and humans. For now she will be allowed to retire from the dairy farm and she will be given some space and some time for her self-development. The farmer is really interested in Animal Communication and he believes that farming and especially Biodynamic farming could greatly benefit from listening to the animals and from working in harmony with them and what they want. He's struggling a lot with the farming concept that animals have to be here for a purpose: serving humans and be killed at the end when there are no longer use for them. We have great conversations every week, and it's so good to get to meet a farmer like him. It does give me hope that another way is actually possible, and it's great to see someone in his position caring and trying to make his own peaceful revolution in dairy farming. I'm hoping to have a chance to communicate with Belinda again next Tuesday, during my weekly visit to the cows. I'll take some pictures too, so you too can see how beautiful she is :)

Thanks,

Noemie.