Post by tierra madre on Jul 31, 2008 5:24:14 GMT -8
Horses: Specialists in Spiritual Healing
Man, I can get so down sometimes.
Constant worry. About money. About horses who are going through physical challenges & pain. About even whether I'm doing the right thing or not. Am I doing right by these guys? Am I doing the best I can? If so, why are there so many problems?
If there's one thing I learned through hundreds of AA meetings, it's that one's mind is a very dangerous neighborhood to inhabit. Very dangerous. It will tell you that wrong is right & that black is white. It will conjure up things that aren't there & blind you to the things that are. It can be black as pitch in the blazing sunlight. Sometimes it revels in causing pain & suffering. It lies & it cheats & it steals. It sends forth terror to stalk you & instructs it to hide in dark corridors, ready to pounce when the time is right. It's a horrible place to be. Whenever I'm cogent enough to realize I'm trudging through its back alleys, I turn to my equine counselors. And they reel my lifeline back in until I'm safe once again. For the time being, anyway.
Without these guys, I'd be lost on some highway between Here & There, searching out some saloon to spend whatever time I have left on this planet.
John. Moose. Heighten. M'Stor. My best counselors. Because they never seem to want to take, only give.
John has this calm about him - I guess it's the itancan coming through. Just standing with him & looking into the deep black pools that are his eyes - eyes that convey that we're here now. Right here. Right now. No expectations & no regrets. Nothing matters but right here, right now.
Moose. The Medicine Man. Moose has lived many lives - in many of Mother Earth's bodies & species. He seems to have a timelessness about him, like he's been here for a thousand years & he'll be here for a thousand more. He's the living embodiment of the Great Circle of Life. Because, like all of us, he has been here for a thousand years & will be for a thousand more. In whatever form Mother Earth decides. He takes away my fear of the unknown.
Heighten. Solid. Knowing. Massive power that's a sight to behold whenever he unleashes it (no wonder he bucked me ten feet into the air a few years ago!). I've said this before & I'll say it again: I truly believe that, at one time, Heighten was the two-legged & I was his horse. Somewhere on a prairie, with the relentless wind whipping the prairie grasses around my legs. Every evening when I'm giving him his treats, those thoughts seems to flow between us. And when I sat through the night with him last year & helped to save his life, our fates were sealed forever. Heighten gives me strength.
M'Stor. A gangly kid in a racehorse's body. Totally innocent. Unconcerned with anything. Break his kneecap & he figures he'll just get through it. Tear up his hoof with abscess upon abscess & it's just another day at the office. It'll pass. I watch him learn something new about himself & the world around him every day, like some 8th grade kid. He's learning trust & love & boundaries. He gets so excited when he's about to get half a scoopful of grain that he gallops & kicks & jumps & throws his head, almost to the point of falling down. M'Stor teaches me that there is still innocence & wonder & joy in this world, no matter what happens.
To have what I have; to be associated with the spirits I'm associated with; to be able to go to them in my times of direst need. And to have them pull me back out of that terrifying neighborhood that is my own mind, well - it's more than I could ever ask.
God, I'm lucky.
Jim
Man, I can get so down sometimes.
Constant worry. About money. About horses who are going through physical challenges & pain. About even whether I'm doing the right thing or not. Am I doing right by these guys? Am I doing the best I can? If so, why are there so many problems?
If there's one thing I learned through hundreds of AA meetings, it's that one's mind is a very dangerous neighborhood to inhabit. Very dangerous. It will tell you that wrong is right & that black is white. It will conjure up things that aren't there & blind you to the things that are. It can be black as pitch in the blazing sunlight. Sometimes it revels in causing pain & suffering. It lies & it cheats & it steals. It sends forth terror to stalk you & instructs it to hide in dark corridors, ready to pounce when the time is right. It's a horrible place to be. Whenever I'm cogent enough to realize I'm trudging through its back alleys, I turn to my equine counselors. And they reel my lifeline back in until I'm safe once again. For the time being, anyway.
Without these guys, I'd be lost on some highway between Here & There, searching out some saloon to spend whatever time I have left on this planet.
John. Moose. Heighten. M'Stor. My best counselors. Because they never seem to want to take, only give.
John has this calm about him - I guess it's the itancan coming through. Just standing with him & looking into the deep black pools that are his eyes - eyes that convey that we're here now. Right here. Right now. No expectations & no regrets. Nothing matters but right here, right now.
Moose. The Medicine Man. Moose has lived many lives - in many of Mother Earth's bodies & species. He seems to have a timelessness about him, like he's been here for a thousand years & he'll be here for a thousand more. He's the living embodiment of the Great Circle of Life. Because, like all of us, he has been here for a thousand years & will be for a thousand more. In whatever form Mother Earth decides. He takes away my fear of the unknown.
Heighten. Solid. Knowing. Massive power that's a sight to behold whenever he unleashes it (no wonder he bucked me ten feet into the air a few years ago!). I've said this before & I'll say it again: I truly believe that, at one time, Heighten was the two-legged & I was his horse. Somewhere on a prairie, with the relentless wind whipping the prairie grasses around my legs. Every evening when I'm giving him his treats, those thoughts seems to flow between us. And when I sat through the night with him last year & helped to save his life, our fates were sealed forever. Heighten gives me strength.
M'Stor. A gangly kid in a racehorse's body. Totally innocent. Unconcerned with anything. Break his kneecap & he figures he'll just get through it. Tear up his hoof with abscess upon abscess & it's just another day at the office. It'll pass. I watch him learn something new about himself & the world around him every day, like some 8th grade kid. He's learning trust & love & boundaries. He gets so excited when he's about to get half a scoopful of grain that he gallops & kicks & jumps & throws his head, almost to the point of falling down. M'Stor teaches me that there is still innocence & wonder & joy in this world, no matter what happens.
To have what I have; to be associated with the spirits I'm associated with; to be able to go to them in my times of direst need. And to have them pull me back out of that terrifying neighborhood that is my own mind, well - it's more than I could ever ask.
God, I'm lucky.
Jim
