Every Donkey has its day

Me

Lovely lady in blue

I had heard that long long ago we donkeys were very important players in the old stories.  We carried Mary, the mother of Jesus to Bethlehem and then carried Him into Jerusalem where he was to die.  My mother told me these stories just as all donkey mothers have always told their donkey children but I hadn't imagined in my wildest dreams that I might be playing a part in this story!  Today I found out that donkeys are still central to the story of the Man who came to wake people up to the Truth of who they are and whose story still does.

A basket full of crosses

My keeper with a shovel!

Singing to Nelson

This morning I woke up in Hackney in the city farm expecting a normal Sunday with children coming to visit and giving me a few more carrots than than I get on a week day when into my stall came my normal keeper with a brush and he set about smartening my tangled fur.  Next, into the City Farm transport and we set off.  I have no idea where I am going, none at all but at 10.00 am, we arrive and all of a rush, my keepers get me out and I find myself in the middle of London in Trafalgar Square.  A woman in a long cloak comes to greet us, she is a bit worried that we may be late.  Late for what I think.  In Trafalgar Square there are literally thousands (apparently 10,000) of people of every age and size and shape and colour with multi coloured tops and all of them have trainers on.  I am wearing my normal shoes and I wonder if I am to join them?  But no, my job is to accompany the other lot, the nice lady holding a cross, the lady in the black cloak and quite a number of people in red and white.  I have two baskets tied onto a strap round my middle which have small paper crosses in them.  We set off, right through the  multi coloured trainer wearing people who seem pleased to see me and we go right through the middle of them and right through the middle of Trafalgar Square, people kindly moving to let us pass.  We are joined by a band with trumpets and drums and we stop beside Admiralty Arch.  I notice that the red and white people are singers and out of their red and white long robes, they produce coffee cups for a quick swig before we set off back across the Square.  The runners stop, the red and white people who are the choir, sing hymns, the lovely lady in blue with the cross leads us across the Square where even the people waiting to run pause to let us pass.  The runners run onward, we stop and sing again before arriving at the huge Church which is at the top of the Square.  Before I get back into my special transport, I am invited into the Church where I walk steadily up towards the front.  The Church is called St Martin-in-the-Fields and is called after a Saint who gave his cloak to a man who needed it.  It is full of people who watch me for a bit before I have to leave.  It was a different sort of day for me but for this morning I was a most important donkey and donkeys for years to come will wish that they could do this too.

Following the red and white people across Trafalgar Square