change is good

At some point I had started blogging on my Horses Heal Hearts website, and I've decided to delete that blog and focus on this one.  Over the next few days, I'll be transferring those posts to my Horse(wo)manship Blog.  Here is a post from December 19, 2016:

Two new horses came to my Retirement Farm this past month.  Army is a 20 year old Warmblood and Jamaica is a 30 year old Welsh Pony cross.  What sweet, easy, and good horses they are!  Having them has excited me and rejuvenated my intent there.  Lately I've been feeling confused and wondering what good am I exactly doing for the world...how am I making an impact?  The other day, watching them amble happily around their pasture, I thought "Taking good care of these good ol' geriatrics is making an impact on THEM!"  If nothing else, I'm helping them have a place to happily live out their lives.  Their arrival has also gotten me thinking a lot about change.

Most of my life I have felt resistant to change.  I’ve had all of 4 jobs in my entire life, I’ve lived in the same house for the past 22 years, I even still have a few articles of clothing from my college days!  I pretty much despise shopping for non-essential items, and think much of our social distress right now can be traced to our ‘throwaway consumer culture’...the one of buying lots of cheap, new items that become obsolete after a few years.  While I’m far from being a Luddite, I certainly have an affinity for antiques and a repulsion toward inexpensive, easily replaceable plastic-y items.  Thanks Mom!!

One of my favorite things has always been getting a new horse into the barn.   I’m always excited to get them settled in, to talk to the owner about what they like and what they’ve been eating and what their exercise schedule has been.  I love that first dinner I give them, seeing them happy and content in their new home that I helped create.  I wake up in the morning after their first night excited to go to the barn and see how they did overnight.  I take a lot of pride in a new horse settling in well.

So here is an example of a place where I actually LIKE change, and I realize that change has a inspirational, energizing effect on me.  Why do I resist it so strongly in so many other areas in my life when I can clearly see the benefits in this case?  Is it about control, that I like change as long as it’s on my terms?  Or is it yet again, that change in horses is so much different than change in people?  How it’s met, how it’s received…..the fact that they only live in the present moment means they show up, they assess their new environment, and then they settle in.  It’s change without the drama!!  Humans rarely ever do that!  We’re always talking, and fretting, and ruminating, and complaining, comparing and future-tripping.  It’s exhausting....no wonder I hate it!
Once again the horses have taught me a lesson without me even realizing it.  The only thing we can truly count on is that everything will change.  Horses are such graceful participants in this fact, willingly embracing their circumstances with such steady acceptance.  If only I could be a little bit more like them.