Happy Tuesday! Happy Year of The Horse! It is our time!
Vibe plate for The Man before some body work, thanks to our friend, M.
I hope this finds you all well, dear readers! I have missed our little corner of the interwebs. These days it feels like the only safe place on the internet.
Do tell, how have you been, what have y’all been up to?
Doing our secret society thing.
My little Christmas Tree is still standing strong giving me all the joy, complete with a big, long pink bow for Valentine’s Day. I am thinking I am going to keep it up most of the year and just add things each month of the year. Something for St. Patty’s day, Easter, Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Summer Solstice, 4th of July, you get the picture. I think we could all use the increased joy!
Holiday baking also brings joy!
Anyway, I have something for you.
I just wanted to say that we are less than a month away from MORE DAYLIGHT. March 8, we are coming for you! I need the sunlight! I will say that this year I have been able to ride more than some years and it has kept me a little more sane.
Just some snap shots of life since we last spoke.
You can do it, we are almost there!
The horses are shedding. Actually, that reminds me. My shedding blade broke the other day! Can you believe that?! All our shedding blades are OLD and it seemed like that would never happen!
The wind is…winding. It feels like springtime winds and everything else that goes along with that…frisky horses and broomstick tails.
The grass is finally green as we finally have gotten some much needed rain (still dancing for more though!). I spread some wildflower seeds a while ago and I can see their beginnings sprouting.
I feel like I can almost feel the pecan trees thinking about greening. Look, OK, I know that is a bit jumping the gun, but just go with it!
I am choosing to believe that the worst of winter is over. That could have been a bad thing to say…but I am not going to think about that. I am just not! We are focusing on the light! Manifesting the good and positive. That dang groundhog just wants to keep hibernating.
The moon and fog were just stunning and I couldn’t not snag a pic.
I wanted to give you a reminder to give yourself grace this season. But not just this season. Give yourself grace every winter. Remember, winter comes every year not matter what!
And winter is hard.
You know it even if you do not want to admit it. It is cold and wet and dark and dull. Do not get me wrong, it is beautiful and wise in its own right, but it is also heavy. It is necessary to get to spring, yes. But, it is OK to slow down. To rest, reflect, and recharge. I dare say you are SUPPOSED to do that! And I loathe that word.
I want you to think about what everything else does in winter and give yourself grace. You work hard all year round, winter is the time to slow down. Allow yourself to do it too! Just think about what happens come spring because of winter’s dormancy. It is coming!
I know you must be in shock and disbelief at your found good fortune. It is alright, I am here for you, dear readers, when I can be anyhow!
We all can help each other get into the Christmas Spirit and this Tuesday before Christmas Eve is a fine time for a Tune Tuesday! And, well, it has been quite a while since we have done one!
To start us off…
Back in October I shared a fabulous song by a band that has just been playing my soundtrack lately. Well I am still listening to them non stop, sharing them with everyone, and you should have a listen here to this!
Look, yes, I prefer the non sad Christmas songs, but lordy, just listen to them. So dang good. I can not even handle it.
And if you are thinking he feels little like Elvis…
However, he is his own man….
Let us not stray, back to Christmas.
Yes, the Lord, the reason for the season, played by this faithful bunch, but back to Christmas music…
OK, sorry. I am back now. Anyhoo. Y’all know how I like my music and Christmas music in particular…
So, you heard it here folks, this is your one stop shop to get those tunes going. Some of the best Christmtas music. Share the light far and wide.
Or, as us cool people know, the best month of the year.
Ah, my dear readers. How I have longed to sit down and chat with you. How have you been?
I am still over here just a runnin’ ’round like crazy. What is really crazy to me is how long this little corner of the internet has been around. EIGHT years (back in August). Can you believe that!?! That is just wild. I created this blog on a whim it felt like. I had been thinking about it for a long time and had done a very little research, but then one day, bam, I just went for it. While at work, no less. Don’t tell anyone. I remember being so surprised at how easy it was and also too, very proud of myself. A part of me longs for when I could write to you most every day like I used to. The majority of me though is just so glad about where I am at. I am working on being OK with stopping in here when I can.
I am currently sitting on the porch, sipping on some rose wine (long time readers know how this can go sometimes!), enjoying the sunset while I write. I am sitting in the same place I drank my coffee this morning to enjoy the sunrise. In fact, if I am being truthful, and you know I always am, what is left of my coffee is sitting here next to me on the table next to my glass of wine because I willfully left it there this morning when Merle and I hopped in the truck to head to work. I know, how very adult of me. I will be even more honest and tell you that I even put my bottle of wine in an ice bucket and that is sitting at my feet. It would be even better if Merle was at my feet too, but alas, the smells in the country can not keep that dog down for long (or really at all). He is out there sniffing and wagging his tail, living his best dog life.
I am feeling blessed that I am looking at some green grass in front of me, but pretty much everywhere else has been burned up to a crisp. Texas summer is holding on strong and keeping us rather warm in the afternoons with highs in the mid to upper nineties. That is one of my justifications for the wine in the ice bucket. It is still so hot! I plopped an ice cube in my wine (gasp!) to keep it cool when I sat down and it has already melted in full.
Pops asked me just the other day if we were going to have a fall. I have two horses growing coats. Which the one I know he starts that early every year no matter what. The trees are turning and beginning to drop their leaves. We have had some semblance of a cool front that has granted us some admittedly very nice mornings, they just do not linger all that long.
I am not complaining though, do not get me wrong. I so feel for everyone that has suffered in the path of hurricane Helene. Some of that destruction many did not see coming at all. You know we know how you feel. One thing after all of these storms that I can remember is that you have to remember ANYTHING can happen in the storm path. No two storms are the same. Scale category means absolutely nothing. Obtain any and all information you can from varied sources.
Anyway, here I am again talking to you about the weather. I can not even remember what all I have told you other than sharing my trip to the mountains of Colorado.
Here is the thing. Shhhhhhhhh. Don’t tell anyone. Life has changed for me in a (big) way, but it does not feel or seem that way. It is so natural and comforting I can not explain it and I really can not explain how grateful and blessed I feel. Really it happened a little bit ago, but I am keeping this quiet for a while to really let it all absorb. Let it settle. BE PRESENT. Get used to it. I have not shared it with really anyone, and that is OK. I may share it one day. Everything with work and the animals and everything else is the same and as great as ever and there is nothing to worry over. The most grand AHA moment there ever was.
Another, even bigger AHA moment. You will likely be tired of this one, but I do not care. This is the one ‘never’ you can say. NEVER forget that you are not promised tomorrow. LIVE your life for real. I lost someone near and dear to me and to my Mamma and to my family. She and my Mamma were the very best of friends. One of my God Mothers. Sad business that. Took me right on back to H and I felt like I could barely go through the motions.
I baked pumpkin bread for the first time already this season (not that I need that excuse, but go with me here) way back some time in August. It felt good and right. There was just the slightest inkling of a fall thought in the air. If you believe the air can have thoughts. It was not really fall at all then (and I knew it would not be), but it sure was good. I stashed the second loaf in the freezer. I am feeling the need to pull it out now.
Lito and I have been riding, as per usual (I could go on and on about how year 11 is the absoulte magic year for homebred horses, but I think I will leave that for another day other than to say that this/he was the best decision I have ever ever made), but we have been getting ready for our big ride coming up in a couple of weeks ever since I got back from Colorado…I actually went back to Colorado for my cousin’s wedding the week after I got back from my Colorado vacation if you missed that…did you follow that???….ANYWAY…In just over a week’s time we will be making our way in that direction. If you don’t know, we go on a big week long ride in the hill country of this great state every October (outside of COVID…but a small group of us had our own little one that year anyway in the east Texas pines) with a group of ladies I belong to (since I am nice and always here for you, if you missed it and are interested and want to see what it is all about…within reason (some of it is like secret society stuff…see the following 2023202220212019 201820172016…you’re welcome, there are at least some great pics). There is always a lot of prep work leading up to the ride outside of the riding hours to get you and your horse ready. Maintenance on the trailer. Stocking up on horse essentials and feed. Then the actual packing for both you and your horse and traveling.
I have been obsessed with this song lately. Really hitting my jam. Not really sure why, other than I have lived in this space. And, sometimes still am…like when I have to go to funerals. Anyway, It is so so good. Sometimes some of you good readers would ask me my favorite song or band of the moment. This is where I am at.
Give it a listen and remember, “you are still fine…God’s perfect wording…you’ll be alright…God is not giving you up,” OK that is the actual biggest AHA moment.
I am on a roll here tonight, OK? The coyotes like this song too if you were wondering.
You know there is always a song or band. Which! Hey! By the way, one of my favorite bands, Cross Canadian Ragweed, is kinda (sorta) getting back together! They broke up way back around about when I graduated from college. They once (or many times) said they would never get back together. Well, never say never because they are going to do a show (a big one…with a bunch of greats) and see how it goes! Fingers crossed it goes and sounds great and they go all in and make a new album. Honestly, waking up to that news today (well really they have been teasing the news for a little bit if you didn’t and wanted to know) sure made me feel like dang near anything is possible in this world. The press on this is overshadowing their website on google, otherwise I would link it for you. Really, I could try harder, but at the moment I am not going to (so sorry!). So, who wants to go to Oklahoma with me in April? I bet the tickets are already sold out. The internet and the world basically died (and went back to high school) when the news broke I think. I am not sure I could tell you which of their songs is my favorite.
Well, my dear readers, it is time. It is (past) dark now and feels pretty dang good out (and the bugs are being summoned to my computer screen….and a frog is hopping across my porch rug), but it is about time I get ready for bed…and have no more wine! We are up early and back to the office in the morning! Work is always busiest when you are! And you know what? I would not have it any other way right now.
Walk in love, dear readers! Tell me something good!
Tune back in for some great hill country between the dun ears pics!
Good morning, dear readers! Or, whatever time of day it happens to be for you wherever you are!
I just wanted to tell you that joy abounds this very day.
It may begin with you or it may begin with a stranger.
Let it grow, dear readers. Choose to believe it and choose to see it. Let it spread.
It is there!
I was blessed by strangers today and I pray that I blessed others in return.
I had to go downtown this morning to the County Clerk’s office to record a deed. Yes, I realize you can do this by mail, but we needed it done in a timely manner and I had never done this before so I wanted to learn about it by doing it in person. I find it humorous that I never go downtown and I will be there twice by the end of the day.
Anyway, I got up early and finished my eggnog cake for Friday this morning and then got dressed and in the truck before 7:15 to make my way downtown well before 8. I had to find parking, pay for said parking, and get to the door ideally before anyone else. I got there in a round about way because I missed a turn of course (we will not talk about how I made a big goof yesterday by making the wrong turn, so much for GPS), but I was able to find a spot a block down.
While I was in the process of gathering my things, I was approached by a man on the street. I will admit to wanting to ignore him and send him on his way while I thought about how to protect my purse. He babbled on about this and that and all I heard was cancer and tacos pondering what to do. At some point I realized that he was offering to help me use the parking meter correctly to avoid extra fees if I needed it…in exchange for tacos. Still being somewhat confused, I accepted his offer while he told me about his cancer and how how he was about to go in for another chemo treatment. He was very nice and respectful and wanted to show me the taco stand around the corner, presumably so I knew that it was tacos he wanted and not something else.
Now, I am aware that this story could go in any which way and very likely in a bad direction. I just did not feel like this was that kind of situation. We talked for a little bit and I gave him some money for tacos and coffee. He was extremely grateful. I asked him his name, to which he told me was Anthony, and I gave him a hug and a prayer.
I made my way down to the courthouse passing many smiling people. Normally I find that people just look down or have a scowl on their face. I walked into the building and made my way through security…more in depth security than you will find at the airport. TSA is not accepted there, if you were wondering. I asked as I was told I had to take my shoes off. They offered a laugh at my question, possibly in pity. They more than thoroughly went through my purse after it was scanned and smiled and laughed at my ridiculous number of keys. They said I must be a busy person to which I had no response but a smile and a nod. They wished me good day and a Merry Christmas after pointing me in the direction of the County Clerk’s office.
I arrived outside the door five minutes to 8 AM and I was the only person waiting. The door was opened at 8 and I was so nicely asked what I needed. I halfway thought he asked because I looked like I needed help, but I was happy for it none the less, maybe I did look that way. I was still surprised by my morning thus far. I told him what I was there for and he said with enthusiasm, “Yes mam, right this way to the right!” I practically snapped to and said with as much enthusiasm, “THANK YOU!”
The office was joyfully decorated and everyone had a smile on. I followed the signs and stopped at the stop sign. The lady at the window smiled brightly and asked what she could do for me. Her desk was so clean and organized, but it also had very personal things on it including her devotional. The whole encounter was just so nice. She was so happy and helpful and smiley. Is that even a real word? It is now. The whole errand took less than five minutes. She told me she loved my name and that it sounded like a super hero! Color me whatever you wish, but that made me stand up taller! I said thank you about five times and we both wished each other a Merry Christmas.
As I walked back through the building, I swear it got more festive. Everyone was wearing something red and green. Even those in uniform. I complimented everyone and everyone was saying Merry Christmas! On my way back to the truck were even more smiling people! I passed someone carrying red and green cupcakes and I told her to have fun at the party, to which she beamed.
Anthony was not there when I got back to my truck. Hopefully he was filling his belly with tacos.
Joy is here, dear readers.
Love is here.
God is here.
Everyone is in different circumstances and it can be had to see it. The light, it is here.
Walk in love, dear readers!
Enjoy some of my Christmas favorites to help you get in the spirit!
See what I did there?! HA! Anyway, take it from me, do yourself a favor and go to a doc if you start to get symptoms because I would still be under it all if I had not. Thankfully, I got some steroids, Tamiflu, and some magical DM cough syrup that has really, really helped. Even still I am very tired and draggy.
Last week really just disappeared before I even knew it while I was wallowing away on the couch. Merle did not even want to play fetch if that is any indication on how very clearly poorly I felt! And now we are already half way through another week!
So, before I got sick, we were enjoying the wonderfulness of Texas in December while getting ready for Christmas.
Christmas time in the southern half of Texas can be truly spectacular!
We fit in a ride before I got sucker punched by the flu.
Merle is generally swimming hot or cold, but you get the idea!
Early mornings are always special, with or without the moon and the start to the sunrise.
Now that I am seemingly and hopefully on the other side of this, it is full on Christmas time!…and past time for me to catch up!
So…
Cue the decorations!
Thankfully for me, I got my cute little tree all dressed not long after Thanksgiving.
One of the things I like to get when I travel is Christmas ornaments. You can see my Aspen leaf from Wyoming, art globe from Hawaii, cross from Ireland, and Santa moon from Santa Fe. It is getting hard to stick with the table top tree now that I have accumulated many ornaments. You can not see it here, but I actually had to tie the tree to the blinds to keep it from falling!
Cue the music!
One of my favorite parts of Christmas!
Cue the ovens!
It is time to get baking and cooking!
I have already made Christmas lemon bars for a white elephant party this past weekend. If you look closely, you can see the Christmas tree. I colored some of the filling with pomegranate juice and red colored sugar sprinkles (because we did not have any red food coloring at the farm) and used a bottle to draw the tree. It turned out OK in looks (very good in taste!), but I think what I will likely do next time is use a tree stencil and powdered sugar to make the outline of a tree, and then just fill the tree with pomegranate seeds. I have decided pomegranate seeds are the perfect finishing tough to almost everything anyway!
I still have not figured everything out, but I know I am baking an eggnog cake on Wednesday for Cousin H’s party on Friday, going to the Nutcracker on Thursday, of course the party Friday, and then Saturday making at least a chocolate gingerbread tart, maple bourbon pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce for Christmas Day! There will likely be something in there for Christmas Eve, but I have not been able to think that far ahead yet.
The good news is, I got most of my shopping finished before I came down with the black plague, so I can just get to work! It is also going to be a rainy all weekend, so it will be a good time to hunker inside, play music, and create. I also need to wrap my presents somewhere in there, but we have time!
Walk in love, dear readers!
Let The Spirit overwhelm you and carry you. This is truly a special time. I know it is a very hard time for many people out there, but just know you are not alone. Reach out, I am always here!
I have to say, I think all of our wishing for summer to hurry up and get on out sure seemed to make it get up and go! This weekend we will have highs in the mid seventies and prayers for rain on the way there. Which, it is currently raining right now while I drink my imaginary cup of coffee. Why imaginary, you ask? Imaginary because I am just a good adult, and I am out of coffee. Well, technically, I am not out as I have a bag of coffee packed for next week, but I do not want to get into it, so I really am being a good adult. Just your average every day musings going on over here.
So, here we are, October, and there you are! If you can not tell, I am more than ready for it. If you know any Texans, I bet you already know this. I might freeze with lows in the low fifties.
Chance started growing his winter coat a couple of weeks ago, which is normal for him, and it was actually noticeably cooler on Sunday morning. My brain wanted to tell me it was even cold! It was not actually cold, we have still been having highs in the nineties and so humid, but the horses’ coats were the tiniest bit puffed up that morning and the nineties are on their way out.
The crazy thing is the timing of it all, but there is never any surprise there. I am just grateful for it. Lito and I will be headed to our annual ladies ride in the hill country for the week starting this weekend and through next week and we will be glad for the cooler temperatures, I grant you that. I think we might both be a bit fresh with it! I will have my lunge line at the ready just in case and his sheet. When temperatures drop while we travel, I always throw his sheet on for some extra comfort. It may just be for me, but it is just something I do along with giving probiotics and electrolytes every time we travel.
ANYWAY.
I have been jamming to this song and those like it these days. It will make for good driving music.
We are mostly ready to go! The trailer is mostly packed and I have most of my things ready to throw in a bag. I do have to pick up some things at the feed store after I drop my Merley Bob at the kennel tomorrow on my way out to the farm. Leaving Merle behind is one of the worst things about some travel.
I sure wish I had some real coffee right now to go with the pitter pat of the rain on the car port tin roof.
Well, it is way past time for me to get going for the day and I have lot to do before I head out tomorrow.
At first I typed ‘Drowning.’ Just…Drowning. So dramatic!
Have no fear, I am not DROWNING. Other than in sweat.
I have been drowning in sweat.
Happy 3rd August, Texas!
Do you remember that time I made a comment about it being ‘real’ hot when you have sweat in your eyelids? No? Well I do and I am here to tell you we somehow skipped that phase and went into full on deluge. This is very reminiscent of the awful summer of 2011.
Yes, I know the heat is old news (I am so tired of getting heat advisory warnings every day!), but I needed to set the scene for what I had got to do on Monday.
This is the end result and I am thankfully not sore:
Thankfully for all of us, there are no progress photos! Ain’t nobody wants to see that! The amount of sweat was surprising to me. I have never sweated that much in my life. It felt like a spigot had been turned on. I started a little after 6 AM and finished before 10. All still morning and in shade. I was not in any hurry other than to finish before my shade ran out. I took many hydration breaks.
84 bales of hay unloaded and crammed stacked into the feed room for winter feels like winning. Anybody who cares for livestock in the winter knows how great this feels. Even if you were completely soaked through with sweat when you were only half way finished. Exhausting work, but it is the most satisfying work at the same time. It is a joyful chore for such a blessing. An even bigger blessing given the drought situation. Hopefully I will not have to use any of this hay before December.
Actual footage of me when I turned around after the last bale was loaded in:
You know it really is dry and HOT when the weeds and trees even look hot.
Anyway, I feel like a kid on the last day before summer or winter break and it is not just because I finally got this important chore off the list.
Why, you ask? Oh, I dunno, because I get to do something exciting soon. Go somewhere exciting soon.
Your AHA moment today is brought to you by Nick Jamerson.
The first video has a lovely intro to the song in addition to this version just being so good, but if you want to just skip to it, watch the second video.
Take these lyrics with you into this blessed long weekend. Remember those who fought for this life you get to live. For the journey you get to walk. Be grateful for what you know and what you do not know while you learn more and gain more perspective and direction. Be grateful you have the chance to wade in and through while enjoying the green grass. Go get that horse.
This song makes me think of my grandfather, Gee Gee, I am not sure why. “There ain’t no cinches in life except on saddles,” he would say, so go catch up your pony, saddle him up, and make sure your cinch is tight. We have some riding to do! This life is a wild ride!
It is a rainy morning here on the farm while I enjoy my coffee in the loggia with my Merle wet and lying at my feet. I managed to get the horses fed before it started raining again. Mother Nature truly put on a light show with the heavy rain storms last night and there is a good chance for more today. I am smiling contentedly as I think of the horses and cows on their happy, lush pastures.
Good Friday is turning into another one of those reflective days for me. I mean, it should be a day of reflection already of course with the coming of Easter, but it is even more so for me now. Good Friday was one of my days with H.
I am not sure when it became a tradition of sorts, but it just did. It was one of the days we would regularly try to schedule a ride together. I think it was a day that she always had off from work and she did not feel as bad taking that time away from her husband, other animals, and home. Sometimes we rode with other friends and sometimes it was just the two of us. It just depended on what everyone had going on. In the more recent past, it was usually just the two of us.
I really miss her today and that seems to make me even more grateful that it is raining like this. Like we are not really missing another ride together as the years accumulate.
However, as sad as I feel at the present moment have felt for the past few days at times coming up on today, I have also found myself smiling at the same time. While on the one hand I am not quite sure how I feel about that, the whole dichotomy of feelings I mentioned yesterday, on the other hand I am beyond grateful that I am here. That I am able to look back on all our time together so happily and be glad that we had it. That I can really feel the gratitude that we were even friends at all, even if it feels like her time here on earth and our time together as friends was cut short.
Being in this new and improved and bigger, but hey the same great thing, space of gratitude while I am remembering my H, I am beyond grateful for my life and my time in this earthly world. I know this probably sounds odd and possibly I could have worded it in a better way, but it is true. Case in point being H. We do not know how much time we have and we can not create it or get it back. My point is, this ever repetitive AHA moment, use your time wisely!
I do not know what exactly I set out to write today, but I am grateful. I am grateful that H and I were friends. I am grateful to FEEL. Whatever the feelings may be. Happy, sad, you name it. They are not independent of each other anyway. You can not have one without the other. I am grateful for my grief because I think it makes the joy bigger.
Walk in love, dear readers! Go live your time while you enjoy the memories! Dance in the rain!
I find myself often these days overtaken by an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.
For so many things. Both big and small. So much so that nothing seems small except my very person in this world. Similar to how storms and mountains make me feel. It is almost as if I am a tiny bug observing this big old world. Not in a scary, I’m going to get stepped on way, but in an awestruck way. Everything seems bigger, not just in size, but in feeling and color.
Heck, I am even grateful for feeling grateful. I don’t care if it sounds ridiculous!
Is it just spring? I don’t think so.
I do not think I can even pin point when this newer shape of gratitude and gratefulness really took hold. I try to always be in that space, but this, this is different.
When I wake up in the middle of the night, or really any time before my alarm goes off, I smile and am grateful to have the opportunity for a little more sleep. This particular gratitude goes even further to being grateful for opening my eyes and drawing breath. Or, rather, the other way around? Anyway, you catch my drift, grateful to be alive, but not in a morbid way.
In the ample time I spend driving (always with the driving thoughts), I am often shaken to realize how grateful I am for my life. For what I get to do. Who I get to spend my time with. For my freedom and independence. That I am no longer in school. Ha! No matter how hard being an adult can be, every life stage has its struggles and some more than others, but I would not trade where I am at for anything.
I am as grateful for the rain we are having right now as I am for the blue sky days.
I rode the other day in the rain, twice, and it was glorious. The first time was somewhat on accident. I was attempting to beat the rain.
We started early in the heavy morning fog, as it only can be in the river bottom. Lito was a bit full of himself, so we set to work in the meadow pasture to bring his attention back to center by doing many transitions within and between gaits while doing circles and serpentines around cow pies, trees, and weeds.
I am not sure when it started to rain really. It started so gradually with just the heavy wetness of the fog that morphed into a mist and then to a drizzle. I think I noticed it in the drizzle phase. I figured we were already getting wet and in the middle of things, why not keep going? So we did and so did the rain. It was wonderful really. When it seemed we were on the same page, we were loping down the fence with the rain coming at our faces. Not in a pelting way, but rather just an increasingly wet and beautiful way. It was still falling softly, but it was accumulating in my eyelashes and I was having a hard time seeing! I laughed out loud and wiped my eyes with the fleeting thought that windshield wipers would be nice before giving my boy a pat and coming back down to a walk.
We made our way back up to the barn where Lito seemed content to stand tacked in his stall and have a little nap. Not ready to commit to being finished for the day, I gave him some treats and left him there while I went inside to have some breakfast. My mom was getting ready to give a walk down the road a chance with a rain jacket and being already wet, we decided to accompany her. We then proceeded to get even more wet when it decided to off and on rain for real! It was still wonderful though. None of us seemed to mind. Lito was having as much fun as I was! It made me appreciate my good hat that I was wearing.
I could not stop smiling the rest of the day and I was so very glad that we rode in the rain.
I was hauling Lito to our favorite place to ride with friends a couple weeks ago and I found myself smiling while driving. I had the windows down and could feel the last remnants of nip in the air. The fog was singing and the sun was painting around some deer in the distance. It made me think of one of my favorite songs and how beauty has a sound.
I was reminded of many years ago one of the first times I did this. I was borrowing my Pops‘ truck, hauling to go meet my friends to ride. I even remember I was listening to a Texas song. I can almost remember the exact one. I had to stop and call my parents to thank them. Thank them for everything. That I am able to do all things I do. I thought then as I thought on this day, that I was living the dream.
I am still living that dream. Back to that day a couple weeks ago, I arrived early as I always do. I dearly hate to be rushed, especially when I am with my horses. I took my time and I groomed Lito, much to his chagrin, for over forty minutes. We rode all over that ranch with our friends surrounded by the big, blue Texas sky, green spring grass, and wildflowers. All while being serenaded by the birds, the wind, and sounds of our horses and laughter.
I am finding myself even at times, grateful for my grief. I do not even know how I got here. The dichotomy of those feelings is so strange and foreign. But alas, that I think is a story for another day.
Anyway, I think y’all have had enough of my rambling for today. My AHAmoment for today is to be grateful for every today you have. Again, not in a morbid way, but in a joyous and comforting way. There is more than one way to make a life. There is always enough time for what is important. It if is a broken record that I sound like, it is a pretty dang good record I think.
Walk in love, dear readers. Look up and see the sky, smell and feel the air!
