Chicken Consciousness

You want to know who truly lives in the present?  Chickens do.  I've realized they have absolutely no sense of time.  Usually I leave them out to free range in the garden for a couple of hours a day. Once in while, however, they have only about 5 minutes out there before I call them back inside.  It all depends on whether I have both dogs available to guard them, and whether I've seen any hawks or foxes about recently.

Miss Red and Miss Ellen, marching in step

But either way, when I call them  and open the door to their run for them to head back in, they clamber in like it's been ages since they've been in there and they just can't wait to get back.  Even on their 5 minutes sojourns, there's no recognition whatsoever that they literally just came out of the run.  They're happy to get back and explore their run like it's new territory.

My godmother is currently suffering from moderate senior dementia and often her brain runs in a similar fashion.  If I call her, she literally has no idea how long its been since I last called.  Sometimes she'll think I called her yesterday, and sometimes she'll tell me it's been two years since I called (I usually call about once every three weeks or so).  But the odd thing is that neither option bothers her...she is just happy to hear from me.

The greater philisophical implications of this will have to be figured out by someone else.  All I know is that if someone is happy, it's a good thing for them, and a blessing for those around them.