What I'm sharing with you here is really all common sense but the ways in which it was presented to me during this time - how I listened, absorbed and realized... powerful.
The following is a bit silly and off topic but relative - please bear with me. Six years ago in New Orleans while passing sign after glittery, neon sign of "Tarot Readings" and "Fortunes Told", I just HAD to add to the Bourbon Street experience. The Tarot reader assigned to me was not at all what I expected - quite the opposite. This pretty, soft-spoken, young woman gently ushered me to a room through a doorway of sparkly beads that shadowed us from the rest of the world. As she carefully placed each fortune-telling card on the table, my thoughts wandered to her youth and general inexperience with life. I quickly decided to forgo telling her that I had recently written a book (a major lifelong goal of mine)...keeping it from her as a test to see if she'd come up with anything in the cards verging on this type of achievement. After studying the cards for a few brief minutes, she told me that I had just done something "big", but she said that it was not going to be as successful as I had hoped. She did say, however, that I would be mentored and find great success in another way. She couldn't expound. I wondered what it could possibly be.
Six months later and having stored her words somewhere deep, I began volunteering at EBC.
So, here I am. Five and a half years of volunteering my time at EBC has come to an end, and the young psychic's words have resurfaced. (She was spot on, by the way, about the book not being successful and that's ok - I had a blast!) I've learned a ton from all of the people I've encountered at EBC - the owners, the therapists, other volunteers, parents, vets, farriers, instructors - thank you, thank you, thank you - each and every one. But I have to say that my true mentors have been my friends with special needs and the horses they ride. I can't imagine that any other beings on this planet could express these common sense lessons as clearly. I've been listening. It all adds up.
Trust + laughter + tears + change + honesty + patience + support + love = healing.
- Trust...life can be scary - believe in others and breathe deeply
- Laughter...life can be silly - just laugh, as much as you possibly can
- Tears...life can be painful - shed those tears, cry as hard as you need to
- Change...life is challenging - practice, one small step at a time and accept
- Honesty...life is too full of fakery - be true to yourself; it will be clear to others
- Patience...life goes by fast - focus, giving yourself and others time to process
- Support...life can seem lonely - share all you've learned and don't be critical
- Love...life can be unfair - hug, open your heart and give.
My life is now heading in yet another direction. Jim and I are heading to Virginia to start a new chapter in our retirement. Jitterbug is coming, too! My plan is to become certified in equine massage. I will pack up all that I've learned from you. I will trust and breathe deeply, laugh and cry, practice and accept, be true and focus. I will share all you've taught. My heart will remain open.
My journey of healing continues...farewell, dear friends.
