Life’s ebb and flow.

In India, at the feet of the mighty Himalayas, sits an unassuming village. Sometimes I wonder how I got here. I look back at the trickling tributaries, the ebbs, and flows of my life. From a childhood in the Southwestern deserts of the United States, to one of the top universities of the West Coast — then it’s slow and steady course suddenly shifting to drifting between countries and couches only to return to my roots in the desert. There I encountered someone whose philosophy quite suddenly joined with my own in a confluence of lives.

My philosophy always included helping others. Even as a child I was drawn to careers of service but it wasn’t until my twenties and the chance encounter that I really began to refine what that means. I think I will spend the rest of my life refining my philosophy — re-hashing it a million times over, molding it to give me a handbook for life based on observations.

Every being wants to live free of physical pain. Pain is therefore and objective “negative”. To live a “positive” and purposeful life, one must dedicate themselves to alleviating or preventing physical pain.

In a way my philosophy brought me here, to the feet of the mighty Himalayas. Dhanotu is a village like any other. Most people are farmers and life is simple. But it was here that we found land of the right size, at the right price, with the right feel — and now I live here.

If you had asked me 5 years ago where I visualized my life would be I certainly would not have said in Dhanotu. I wouldn’t have said I would be living in India. I wouldn’t have said that I would be rescuing cows. I wouldn’t have said that I would be farming. But here I am, at the logical extension of my own philosophy and the course that I could flow on.

Ain’t life funny?

My name is Jo and I am the co-founder of Peepal Farm, a community in Northern India dedicated to reducing the suffering of stray animals by healing them and helping them be heard.

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