Trust - that's where it all starts

Training a young horse has always been done in many different ways.

Good ways and bad ways.

Ways that work and ways that don't.

Ways that work for a while and then they don't anymore...

A horse has a natural flight behavior and if humans want to interact with and "use" horses abilities for their purpose, they have to build up TRUST.

MUTUAL TRUST.

The horse has to learn to trust you that you won't eat it,

and the human has to learn to trust the horse that it won't panic and hurt someone...

That's the basic idea, that's where horse training starts, ideally with a foal right after birth, and/or later with a young colt or filly, when they are 2,5 or 3 years old.

Lots of horses get started ("breaking" them - an expression which comes from breaking their will to be free and independent from humans),

when they are 2,5 (US, QH) or 3 (Europe, Warmbloods) years old.

At least in the Quarter Horse world I know they start very early.

They have to perform on futurity classes in the age of ONLY 3 or 4 years old...

THEY ARE STILL BABIES for crying out loud!!!

But that's the way it is in the horse business world.

And that's why so many horses are physically worn out too young,

OR

psychologically KAPPUT,

crazy in their heads, behaving like maniacs and buck people off or run them over...

Those horses have been overchallenged or overworked, had to perform too hard and too early in their lives.

INDIGO was 2 years old when we bought him.

He was brought over from Spain a couple of months before that and looked pretty miserable.

It was obvious that he was underweight and underdeveloped for his age.

He didn't have a good start in life.

He had many blockages and weaknesses in his body AND mind, which needed time to be resolved.

We let him be a young horse, we gave him time to develope a strong, healthy body but also a strong, healthy mind.

Of course, we started working with him as soon as we got him, we had to build up TRUST with him, tought him to be brushed and that it wouldn't hurt to get feet cleaned and trimmed.

Things like that...

Last fall we decided that it was time to be introduced to a saddle on his back and he was very cool about that.

But still, we had him checked and there were still blockages in his back and neck that needed treatment and time.

He was growing and changing so much in his body this last year, we just couldn't imagine to put a human weight on him - YET.

But now, at the age of 5, he seems to be ready, and that is a very good feeling.

We want him to be strong and healthy for many years to come, that's why we waited.

We didn't have an agenda with him, are still not thinking of making one.

What will be will be...

*Arabic horses usually get started with the age of 4 or 5 years because of their need of extra time to develope well enough physically.

*The Spanish HOFREITSCHULE (Riding School) in Vienna is also schooling their young and famous Lipizzaner horses not before they are at least 4 or 5 years old...!

To the question of WHY Carola is helping with Indigos training, is easy to answer...

It's not just that Carola trains horses in a way that benefit their physical possibilities and bring out the best possible, natural movement in a natural way;

She has also more experience in working with spanish horses (they are "different" in so many ways, so lovely ways!!!)

AND

she has always had a SPECIAL BOND with Indigo, right from the beginning.

:))

So it's just natural that THEY WORK TOGETHER.

So nice!!!

:))

Independence

HAPPY 4th OF JULY !!!

4th of July is the day that the US are celebrating independence.

Every human being on this planet wishes for independence, right?!

Every human being deserves to be independent, right?!

Many human beings have fought for their independence in the past,

as individuals or as a collective.

Many human beings fight for their independence right now.

Don't we all fight for independence every day of our lives?

From the day we are born?

Everyone needs independence, everyone deserves independence!

Independence from OTHERS, "their" opinions, boundaries, "their" social and political values, often "their" money.

BUT I don't want to speak of money, of materialistic independence.

I want to speak about SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE.

This kind of independence has always been feared the most, hasn't it.

...By political leaders, religious leaders,

everyone that wanted to be superior to another.

What IS spiritual independence?

What DOES spiritual independence MEAN

for us as an individual and to the collective?

Spiritual independence is the freedom to find out who you are and be who you are.

Spiritual independence for me as an individual means to have my own oppinions about life and everything else.

Spiritual independence means that I grant the same to everyone else on this planet, that I am free of the need to judge others.

Spiritual independence also means TO BE FREE OF (my) EGO.

And that to me is the biggest challenge in life.

That is what I am "not fighting for" but striving for every day.

SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE

for the COLLECTIVE

STARTS

in the individual.

It could mean peace,

freedom for everyone,

enough food for everyone

and a possibility to heal and preserve our beautiful planet

for those who will wander this world after us.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO

ALL OF YOU!!!

♥ ♥ ♥

Loosing track of TIME

Is it a good thing to loose track of TIME, or not?

I mean loosing track of the "human made TIME".

All our precious hours, minutes, seconds. That kinda time...

If we didn't have some appointments to follow up on, if we wouldn't have a weekly TV schedule to follow ( kiddin!)...

I would really loose track of time.

I do, I did yesterday, and days before. I couldn't remember what day it was.

I really had to think to figure out what day it was...

I wonder how life was like before people had worked out calenders and framed that "thing", that "space", that " ", and called it "TIME".

I wonder how life was like when people lived by natures schedule only, when they lived from full moon to full moon, from sunrise to sunset.

I like the feeling of loosing track of "TIME" the way we know it today.

I like it when you are able to find your own rythm, your own inner "TIME".

It's within all of us, that inner "TIME", it's a rythm that we should be able to follow. Not a stupid clock that tells us when it's time to do certain things.

That rythm is different for everyone of us.

I suppose most of us are moving too fast.

I noticed it the other day when I was pushing Edith's buggy walking away from the farm.

I was not walking, I was running!

I wanted Edith to be able to fall asleep, she was very tired but it was just so much going on and she didn't want to miss anything, so we put her in the buggy and hoped for the best...

She didn't want to settle at first, not at all.

She was pulling herself up all the time to be able to look around.

She turned her head and look at me like "are you serious? I can't sleep now!

Put the thing that supports my back up, so that I can SIT!

GRRRRR! "

;-)

I wanted her to relax and thought it might help if I would lower my own energy level.

So I started to ask my body, started to listen to my inner rythm and realized that my own movements were too fast.

I had to slow down in order to get closer to my inner, natural rythm.

I had to repeat this listening several times and every time I got a little bit slower.

It took at least 15 minutes until I had found a rythm in my walking

that felt really comfortable, that felt like it was "MINE".

I checked on Edith and her eyes were closed, she was asleep. Finally.

I turned around and pushed the trolly back home, enjoying the wind touching my skin, the singing birds up in the sky and piece and quiet within me.

This kind of "TIME" is very precious to me.

The other kind of "TIME" is only "necessary".

IS IT?

What is TIME for you?

***

Here a shot I took about a week ago...

Is that one horse or two..? ;-)

Have a great day everyone!!!

*

SIESTA

It's almost 10 pm.

We had 30 degrees Celsius on the porch today, in the shade!

I started to clean out the shed (to make room for hay) this morning after turning out the horses and mucking the boxes.

I had to move slowly and be careful not to wase too much engery. It was so warm!

Even though I was able to stay in the shade, it was windless and humid.

I took a break around 11:30, went in to drink lemon-water and cool off on the sofa...

Hasi was already done with laundry chores and vacuume cleaning.

The house is equipped with one of those fantastic "built in" systems where you only have to plug the (very long) hose into the outlets in the walls... It really works perfect! Amazing power!

:))

We both ended up resting on the sofa, thinking about what to eat for lunch.

We decided to warm up leftover chicken sweet sour and I made fresh Jasmin Rice.

After lunch we landed on the sofa again - after pulling down the blinds and closing the back door, trying everything to keep the hot air from coming into the house.

Soon after that, around 1 pm, I fell asleep.

When I woke up one hour later I realized that Hasi and Cleo were gone...

I spotted Cleo on the bed in the bedroom, the door was open. She wasn't alone in there, Hasi was also taking a nap. :))

I went up and to the bathroom, felt incredibly tired and decided to take another nap.

How cool is that!?!

S I E S T A ! ! !

It was 4:30 pm when we woke up again. I slepd so well!! :))

It felt so good to rest, not just the body also the mind was resting.

I turned the horses back out, luckily it was a bit more windy and the nasty horseflies were mostly gone.

We, Hasi and I, joined forces to get finished on the shed project, around 7pm it was accomplished.

Clouds started to show up on the western sky behind the "Fjälkinge Backe" Nature Reserve.

It has cooled off quite a bit but no rain so far.

I just looked, it's 19 Deg.Cel. now on the back porch. HEAVEN!

Hasi and Cleo are out on a evening walk. It's almost dark now and they should be back soon.

It's almost 11pm now.

It's quiet in the house, the only noise i hear is my fingers tippy-tapping on the keys AND the sprinkler just outside of our yard.

The farmers are very busy with watering their corn- and potatoe fields.

The sprinklers run 24/7.

It seems to pay off though, the plants are doing great, the harvest will be rich, some cornfields are starting to turn from green into gold, a beautiful sight!

I hear Cleo's little paws coming in...

Time to get ready for bed...

Good night World!

***

Love for ME?

A person very close to me is hurting.

I can feel the pain, the sadness, the solitude, the disappointment.

I know those feelings are not mine.

I recognize those feelings because I haven't forgotten.

Once they were part of my life, part of me.

I used to feel like that a lot.

When I did, all I wanted was to crawl away somewhere and

be alone.

Alone with myself so no on could hurt me again.

I felt horrible, miserable,

but I also made sure no one would see that...

It's a journey.

I am not the only one who has to walk that street.

Slowly and with the help of people around me

and through coaching

I was able to find ME.

I was able to find

the places and times

where I could

RELEASE

the pains, the feelings that had

kept me from

LIVING

for so long.

There are no words that can help you in those moments of pain.

They also need to be lived.

I had to learn it the hard way that

you cannot run away from them.

You cannot hide from them, to place on earth , not even the dreamworld

will protect you from those feelings.

They are real, they claim their right to be lived by you.

So I did.

If I hadn't allowd myself to do let them be alive,

they would have numbed me even more and crippled my soul forever.

Finally I realized at some point,

that the only way to find happiness and peace

would be to start forgiving myself and others

AND

to start loving myself

instead of

desperately asking others to love me first.

And that is probably the hardest lesson to learn for all of us.

I am working on it...every day.

For you! ;-)

Almost weekend

Today's a special memorial day in Holland.

The country is mourning for the people who died in that horrible incident on Queens Day.

I hope it helps victims and affected people to find some closure.

The entire country has moved a little closer together this last week.

And everyone is moving on as good as they can...

*

I went for a short ride yesterday;

Between two of the many rainshowers

that are going down these days.

I wasn't really up for it but once I was sitting on Midas

I didn't care about the clouds and the cold wind anymore.

The reward was huge.

Clear air and contrary lighting in the woods.

The foilage of the trees is growing really thick.

The leaves are light green

and when the (sun)light hits them

a magical atmosphere originates.

It's like beeing in one of those fairytale movies.

The horses were relaxed and seemed to enjoy the stillness as well.

A little later, already on the way back to the stable, I spotted a Moose.

She was laying down and was surprised by our appearence.

I noticed her huge, fluffy, round ears

AND her eyes got really big!

She got up, turned around and disapeard in the bushes.

I saw her maybe for 10 seconds, but it seemed so much longer.

It was a very intense encounter.

I assumed she'd gone into the other direction

but just a little later she crossed our path about 20 meters in front of us.

This time the horses eyes got bigger then big!

I managed to keep them calm until she was out of sight.

We went home.

No pictures...

I hadn't brought my camera so I couldn't take a shot of her,

but I came home with a big smile out- and inside...

;-)

Today we had the first thunderstorm of this year.

The house was shaking under the grumbling thunder.

Electricity was gone for a little while only.

The rest of the afternoon was dry and partly sunny.

Spring weather!

Yeah!

:))

Sunday we'll go to Tjörn for a photoshoot.

Tjörn is a small island north of Göteborg

and the sixth largest island of Sweden.

It's supposed to be very beautiful there...

Let's hope the weather is gracious.

It's weekend. It has been a long week somehow.

But that's probably just my perception.

WEEKEND!

:))

A matter of perception

I love this photograph.

I've used it in a prior post, but here it is again

because I think it is really special.

It has a special meaning for me.

I took it a couple of days ago in a shed on the farm.

There are 2 or 3 windows like this one, the glass seems to be old, hand made (blown) glass.

It has those blebs in them, you know.

Only on this window half of the glass is missing.

I took a few steps back and looked outside

from the dark into the light.

Beautiful trees, fresh green foliage moving in the wind.

I could smell them, hear the wind and the birds.

I looked and compared the two different views.

One clear and crisp, the other wishy-washy and blur.

.

.

.

We often have days where we tend to look at something or someone

and are quickly able to form an opinion.

Clear, sharp, true and honest.

On another day we might take another look,

at the same something, the same someone,

and see something completely different.

Our sense of perception might have changed.

There might be something

"in the way"

that makes our ability

to see clear and crisp

impossible.

Like hard feelings, rumours and other peoples stories, opinions and views,

memories... all "handmade" as well ;-)

I often get confused when that happens.

I start to doubt my inner voice, that voice that never lies.

It feels like loosing connection with your inner self.

If that happens it is somehow scary, isn't it.

I need to be able to see what is real and true for me.

Without ANYTHING beeing in the way.

I need to be able to see what is REALLY out there.

:))

Love for the journey

Life - a miraculous journey!

ITHAKA

When you set out for Ithaka

ask that your way be long,

full of adventure, full of instruction.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - do not fear them:

such as these you will never find

as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare

emotion touch your spirit and your body.

The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - you will not meet them

unless you carry them in your soul,

unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.

At many a Summer dawn to enter

with what gratitude, what joy -

ports seen for the first time;

to stop at Phoenician trading centres,

and to buy good merchandise,

mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

and sensuous perfumes of every kind,

sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;

to visit many Egyptian cities,

to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.

Your arrival there is what you are destined for.

But don't in the least hurry the journey.

Better it last for years,

so that when you reach the island you are old,

rich with all you have gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.

Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.

Without her you would not have set out.

She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.

So wise you have become, of such experience,

that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

by Constantine P Cavafy

I love that poem.

It says so much about life, how it should be lived, how it can be lived.

And it tells me that there are clues for me on the "how" everywhere,

I just need to pay attention.

It tells me that I am so much more then I appear to be on the outside...

It tells me that everything, everyone else is so much

more then they appear to be on the outside!

It tells me to think lofty!

I like that thought!

It tells me that happiness IS within the Now,

IS within every step of the way.

It tells me NOT to hurry those steps and

not to welcome of the obstacles in front of me.

It tells me that awareness is the only way to do it right.

Only through awareness I can see with my heart.

It tells me that life is endless, that there is no beginning either.

Life is fluent, like the water in the nearby creek.

As we live, we grow.

We grow in knowledge, the only real wealth that can be gained is happiness.

And happiness is whatever we want it to be,

it IS the journey itself...

:))

♥

A new morning

What a fantastic morning!

What happend yesterday is not forgotten.

The images seen on TV stayed with me all night.

Not that I couldn't sleep.

It is just the first thing you think of when you wake up...

People say, it will never be the same again.

Of course it won't.

Maybe that is a good thing...

Maybe we should see what happend as a

"Wake up call"?

Not just about this great event each year in Holland and the security around it.

Of course it should be continued.

Of course security has to be optimized.

Of course their should be laughter and joy again!

The "Wake up call" that

I SEE

in yesterdays event

IS

That we have to honor life every day!

That we have to respect others every day!

That we have to laugh with our friends every day!! (Big one!!!)

That it is not fair to "dump" our problems on someone else!

That we should deal with our problems ourselves, and if we can't, we should seek help and never panic!

Panic is growing in our heads only if we allow it!

*

It's time to take the horse for a ride in the woods before it gets too warm.

It's 8:30 and 20˚ C already!

Midas doesn't appreciate the warm weather too much...

:))

mourning and dismay...

Shocking events at KONINGINNEDAG...

It should have been a shining party!

It should have been only laughter and joy!

It should have been an unforgettable event!

It should have been a day of love, union and pride!

One man decided to hurt people!

WHY?

WHAT

was it

that brought this man to a point in his life

where he stopped caring about the precious lifes of others?

4 dead.

Many hurt!

More wounded!

A nation in shock!

It takes a while until you realize that what you just saw on TV is reality.

Human bodies flying through the air.

Laughter changes to horror in a split second.

Some start running, screaming.

Others are paralysed.

YES,

it happens all the time,

all over the world.

People kill people.

But every life lost is one too much!!!

Lifes are so fragile.

We are fragile.

I am fragile.

Everything around us is fragile.

That is why we have to be

EVEN MORE

compassionate,

understanding,

loving,

caring,

mindful.

With our children, neighbour, animals, strangers... ANYONE!

In every situation, with everyone and everything.

We don't have to agree with everyone, like everyone.

BUT

we have to treat each other well at all times.

Life is fragile.

*

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/30/netherlands.queen.car/index.html

One more month

This place has been our home for six months now.

We rent the house of a huge farm that used to be a pig farm.

The barns and stables have been empty for years.

Our landlord bought the farm (about 30 ha) a couple of years back.

He and his family are living a couple of km from here on the original farm which is called "Semb Mölla". They are bording and breeding race horses (trotters). I don't know how much land they really own, but they told us that they are also renting additional farmland to be able to produce all the feed they need for their horses.

There are tow harm houses on this property.

The second one is just a couple hundred meters away from us, it's also rented out.

It has a garage and a small barn, that is where our horses are living.

The photos where made last September...

This is the horse farm we will move to end of May...

We are already in the planning for the move.

But with the help of the internet is that really easy.

So much can be arranged online these days, I love that!

Hasi's sister will come from Holland to

help us with packing and cleaning and

the moving company is already arranged for the 28th of May.

It will be a "smooth ride" all the way to Fjälkinge!

:))

Full time job

BLOGGING

is hard work.

It could become a

FULL TIME JOB!

We blog a lot because we want to share and

want to keep our regular readers happy, don't we!

Of course we do!

;-)

But that is not enough...

There are all those friends

that want to keep in touch with you

on other platforms

like

stayfriends.com

facebook.com

(...where strangers become your friend by just one click)

twitter.com

(...where you gather followers)

msn messenger

and myspace

(...where people pretend to be someone they are not)

yahoo messenger

AIM

ICQ

and

Jabber,

and not to forget Skype!

Just to name a few.

Wouldn't ONE provider/service be enough for all of us?

It would make life so much easier!

Well..

And then you have your special contacts and friends

who you are still sending regular (ordinary) e-mails from time to time,

friends who want to know what is going on in our lives.

That is why I started blogging originally.

I thought it would be the easiest way to

keep all our friends and contacts up to date

on our daily adventures.

For those who really want to know.

But I am not complaining!

Don't get me wrong.

I love to get e-mails and also love to write them myself.

It is still my favourite way to stay in touch with our beloved friends all over the world.

But all that

IMing and

tweeting and

facebooking

is just too much for me.

A great way to get friends and followers though...

I love the internet

BUT

What will they come up with next?

;-)

I had a dream

I had a dream last night.

I dream often and I do remember them mostly.

I used to be upset about most of my dreams.

Many of them were sad and I would wake up sad.

Nowadays its mostly "OK" dreams.

Sometimes I might even wake up,

remember the dream and smile.

I have changed and so have my dreams.

My dreams are still mostly silly and weird though,

no real story, everything gets mixed up and

they seem to make no sense whatsoever.

It seems like it...

This dream I woke up from this morning

had a message in it.

I recognized it while beeing still IN the dream.

And I rememberd that message

right away when I woke up.

IF SOMETHING 'BAD' HAPPENS

ALWAYS TRY TO FIND 'THE GOOD'

THAT COMES OUT OF IT!

:))

Have a fantastic day everyone!!!

*

Hare - Rabbit Medicine

A couple of syllabi from the book

Medicine Cards / Animal Medicine

(www.medicinecards.com)

on

RABBIT Medicine:

*

SACRED LITTLE RABBIT...

PLEASE DROP YOUR FRIGHT!

RUNNING DOESN'T STOP THE PAIN,

OR TURN THE DARK TO LIGHT.

Rabbit is the Fear Caller.

He goes out and shouts,

"Eagle, I am so afraid of you."

If Eagle doesn't hear him,

Rabbit calls louder,

"Eagle, stay away from me!"

Eagle,

now hearing Rabbit,

comes and eats him.

Fears are called upon us to teach us a lesson.

Keynote:

WHAT YOU RESIST WILL PERSIST!

*

So, what can we learn from Rabbit...?

If we let our fears rule our lives,

if we try to outrun them,

they will have enormous power over us.

If we recognize them,

allow ourselves to feel them,

we will be able to release them.

We release them to Mother Earth

and she will give us life energy in return.

It's so easy... isn't it??!!

:))

No plan

Picture source www.roeserschool.lu

I had a big AHA moment this morning...

I love to watch hares.

They are beautiful with their big brown eyes,

big nose and those enormous ears.

There was a hare leaping around the farm this morning.

He looked very busy,

sniffing here and there,

running a few meters here,

running a few meters there.

Then he would stop for a moment,

listen,

check for any danger,

start running again,

change direction,

sit down and eat a little,

leaping to the left,

changing direction,

leaping to the right,

run,

stop,

duck,

eat,

run,

change direction,

and so on and so on.

Hasi and I were watching him together,

through the window of the living room

and I said:

"That hare doesn't seem to have ANY PLAN

about what to do and where to go next!"

And Hasi just answered..:

"He doesn't need a plan,

he just

needs to

BE

PRESENT."

:))

Today

Future could mean

lots of (fun) work on the horse farm

and less time for blogging

Sounds great!

Today is Today

And Today started very nice.

I got up at 6 and turned out the horses

on the other small field,

the one with a little more fresh grass on it.

It seemed to me that both of them appreciated that decision.

We'll go for a drive again today and

visit the area where we are planning to move to.

And we will visit Carola for coffee

and maybe there is time to

make a couple of good pictures for the book,

you can never have enough of those!

Our dogs love to travel.

Barry, our german sheperd sleeps in the back of the car, he loves that so much!

Only when driving slow he will sit up and look around a bit.

Cleo travels easy too.

It is important to train dogs for traveling

when they are still young.

Cleo is now almost 8 years old and

she has many miles of traveling experience.

She loves to look out the window,

her favourite spot to do that is the co-drivers lap!

On longer drives

(and when the co-driver isn't in the mood to have a dog in her lap)

she sleeps on the back seat,

in her basket.

Short drives,

especially on country roads mean lap-time.

She will try to spot cats, dogs deer and other wildlife,

and when she sees something her heart starts pounding like crazy

and she turnes her head around,

looks at you like..: "Did you see it too??!!"

So cute!

It's time to pack

the camera, dog food, sandwiches etc. for the trip...

Have a fun Today everyone!

:))

I am fine!

It has been at least two weeks since we've seen a moose...

I wonder, where they are.

I guess they are finally able to find enough to eat

IN

the forrest and

don't have to come out so much anymore.

We haven't seen any deer lately either.

I was out riding this morning,

we did see two Cranes on a big ploughed field.

We could get pretty close,

until they took off.

Didn't bring the camera though...

Those birds are so HUGE!

What a wonderful sight.

This afternoon we took a drive out to the coast.

Of course NOT without the camera...

The farmers are working hard these days.

Most fields are ploughed and seeds planted.

The weather has been perfect, the fields are dry this spring.

I was told that last spring

many of the heavy tractors got stuck

in the mud and it was hard to get the job done in time.

I think no one has reason to complain this year.

At the beach...

The wind pushed waves towards the shore,

sunlight reflected magically on the water.

It was loud and powerful.

:))

We really enjoyed the time here in this area.

It has been 6 months since our arrival in Sweden.

We love the landscape here,

the province Halland has been a fantastic home for us.

Yes, I am writing in past tense...

I didn't want to write - or even think - too much

about our future plans

because

I am so incredibly excited and

as long as we haven't signed the contract,

I fear something could happen

and then I would be very disappointed.

I am writing

about our big, new adventure,

about the fact that we will be moving soon,

about the horse farm that we will be renting.

We will meet the owners again on Saturday,

hopefully we will all be able to agree on the contract.

Saturday is the big day.

Or maybe it is just an ordinary Saturday.

I could choose to put extra stress on myself,

but I really want to stay focused.

I could choose to drive myself crazy,

but I really want to stay calm.

On one side

it is perfectly normal to be nervous,

on the other side

there is absolutely no reason to be nervous.

I want to be able to relax in this situation,

I don't want to spoil this wonderful, exciting and sweet time until Saturday.

I want to be able to enjoy the whole process, every minute of it.

And I want to be able to let go of the fact that it might not happen after all...

Again!

All I have is the NOW.

Yesterday is gone.

Tomorrow is not yet written.

We'll see how I'll get through the next days...

I'll be fine.

I am fine!

;-)

Flap your wings!

Today I got reminded of a story

I read recently in Eckhart Tolle's Book

"A New Earth"

Mr. Tolle is telling about an observation he had made and it goes like this:

Two ducks get into a fight, which never lasts long,

they will separate and float off in opposite directions.

Then each duck will flap it's wings vigorously a few times,

thus releasing the surplus energy that built up during the fight.

After they flap their wings,

they float on peacefully,

as if nothing had ever happened.

We can learn so much from animals, can't we.

I learned something from my horse today.

We were riding out in the woods again.

Often, when we pass a nice spot, I stop him.

We stand there, look around, listen and look, and listen and look...

you get the picture.

Today he was the one who decided to stop.

Several times.

At first I didn't make much of it even though,

he is usually the type of horse that doesn't like to stand still.

We were actually training that a lot lately.

But today he was very different, extremely relaxed and calm.

So we stood there,

listened to the birds, the stream nearby, the silence.

I touched his shoulder and felt his strength.

I closed my eyes and felt his breath, his heart beat.

I took a deep breath,

and so did he.

I realized

I was still caught up in thinking,

of things I had to do later on,

phone calls I had to make

and

phone calls I was expecting.

Everyday thinking (some of it compulsive I fear).

I am usually not good in letting go...

My horse turned his head around and kinda looked at me,

and then it hit me!

YES!

This is the perfect place to let go of all thoughts, sorrows and fears.

I heard my inner voice:

"Leave everything here".

I just need to "flap my wings", that's all!

So I started to listen again...

to the birds,

to the wind,

to the streaming water nearby.

I starded to find my horses breath and joined him.

We were breathing together and

he was still standing there with me like a rock.

We were taking many deep breaths,

and with every exhale I felt lighter.

I thought:

"I'll leave it here, whatever it is that puts stress on me at this moment".

"The universe will take care of it"

And I believe it does.

Taking in those moments felt amazing.

I felt happy and blessed.

We must have been on that spot

for at least 10 minutes

when Midas decided to continue down the path.

I thought about the story from Eckhart Tolle's book again,

the story about the ducks.

We too are able to let go of surplus energy,

of stressful and negative thoughts.

My horse does it all the time.

Weather he is excited or frustrated,

he'll shake his head or express it in another way.

It's fun to watch.

Too often we put stress upon ourselves,

by thinking negative thoughts,

by making something bigger as it really is,

by staying angry at someone or a situation

even though

it's all part of the past.

There are so many things in life that we can't controle,

so what is the point in trying?

It takes so much engergy, doesn't it!

Why not let go of things we cannot change,

things we cannot controle?

Why not UNLOAD ourselves

of what puts so much weight on our shoulders,

Why not be more patient

and make the best possible life for us

NOW.

Now it's time to let go of my laptop and go to bed...

Sleep tight everyone!

:))