11 Jun When you get shaved, you have to lie still

With a firm swing, he turns the animal onto its side. ‘What should I do?’ I ask helpfully. The previous evening, my sister-in-law had asked me if I would help with shearing the sheep. I had to think for a moment. ‘You just need to hold the sheep,’ she said encouragingly, ‘he will do the shearing.’ He is her seventeen-year-old blonde son, recently wrapped in a black leather jacket that gives him an air of toughness and contrasts with his shy appearance.

‘Take these two legs,’ he says. The sheep, named Meadow, seems to submissively endure this wooden grip. She has stretched her head out and is waiting to see what happens next. ‘Oh dear,’ says my cousin, ‘this is not the right clipper. Just wait a moment, I’ll be right back.’ And away he goes.

When you get shaved…
I am bent over with the two legs in hand. Will the sheep trust me, I wonder. Won’t she try to get back on solid ground right now? But Meadow has patience. She remains motionless. Cousin has been away for a long time. I consider whether I can assume a more convenient position and go down on my knees without letting go of the legs. Then I dare to sit cross-legged next to her on the ground. A chicken wanders over to my left. The chicken hesitates to see if there is perhaps something to gain or if it is better to keep its distance. Or maybe it just finds this a strange spectacle, which I can’t blame it for. Here comes cousin walking with a small suitcase under his arm. Skillfully, he shears Meadow strip by strip. The sheep is even eating some grass in between. If we want to shear the other side of her, Meadow needs to be turned around. Now she takes her chance. She kicks wildly with her legs, and I have to let her go. Just like a cyclist who accelerates precisely out of the peloton around the corner, Meadow swiftly turns upright and takes off running. The half-shorn coat hangs behind her. If the hen were to look now, she would rightly find it a strange spectacle.

Shearing Meadow is one thing, but catching Meadow is another. Every time my cousin or I almost have her, she takes an extra sprint and disappears again. We run over the spacious field repeatedly until Meadow is tempted to walk into a dead-end path next to the barn. My cousin pulls her along and bravely lays her back on the ground, and I get to hold her legs in the air again. Slowly, I notice what is needed to keep Meadow on the ground. Occasionally, I let go of a leg and place a hand on her belly to give her a sense of safety. Would this help?

Teamwork
After an hour, Meadow is sheared. I have the impression of having done a complete workout even though I have moved very little. Meadow immediately runs after her sisters so that we won’t catch her again. We load the wool into large bags. ‘The soup is ready,’ we hear the mother calling.

Nothing is as bonding as tackling a task together. Of course, talking is important too, but during such a physical team task, you need to sense each other. At the beginning it was a bit awkward, but by the end we were a team.

Shearing sheep can be ticked off my bucket list even though I didn’t know it was on there.

Daring to do something you’ve never done before is a beautiful step towards development. However, a coach who uses the method ‘De Innerlijke Metarmofose’ of ‘De StressOntknoping takes a calmer and safer approach to inner growth and transformation.

The method of ‘De Innerlijke Metamorfose’
He lets the client practice their new beliefs in what I call a garden plot. You recite a power phrase in the morning, in the understanding that it does not need to prove itself yet. Just like seeds that you scatter on the earth and water every day, the new belief will take root and then grow. In a short time, it will naturally manifest in daily life. The power phrase works so well because you also feel it internally and adopt the corresponding posture with your body. But also because there is no pressure to exhibit different behavior immediately. The transformation seems to happen completely effortlessly. This is one of the several special tools and the structure of the method.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch