Life Shapers

I am not a philosopher, I can't "wax-eloquent", and I have a difficult time putting my thought down in prose.  That is probably because capturing them is like herding cats...they run around inside this melon on my shoulders at just under the speed of light; making it very difficult to catch on to them long enough to explain them.  And when I do...another one distracts me and here we go again.  My only recourse is to stop trying to grab hold of them and reflect.  It is like ignoring a child (or and adult for that matter).  When you aren't paying attention to just them, they tend to slow down and try to figure out why.

I noticed that with the first filly my mare gave me years ago.  If I walked after her she'd just run away...for hours.  Horse burgers sounded really good a number of times.  I decided I had few options: 1) eat her, 2) sell her (if I could catch her), 3) make her run until she was so tired she thought she'd die (which is a common method amongst the wanna-be cowboys), or 4) use their natural curiosity to my favor.

With her halter in hand, a chair, and one of my favorite books I sat out in the middle of the pasture.  Her mom would follow me around like a fly on stink, so I put her in the adjoining pasture.  I sat, read, and waited.  It took a little over an hour, but soon she (Scooter) became curious and slowly walked over to me, wanting to see what I was up to.  As she got closer I'd start reading out loud, stop and look at her, pause, and go back to reading.  Soon she couldn't stand it and came right in.  I let her sniff a bit, then I'd wave my hands and scare her off...picking up my chair and moving to a different spot.  It didn't take long before she was in my space again, wondering what I was doing.  I repeated this for about four hours.  By the time I was done she followed me around like I had carrots in my pocket.  Not only was I teaching her that her curiosity was a good thing, but that she could trust me not to try to capture her.

My horses were one of the most influential things in my life.  They comprise one set of the ideas scattering around in my melon.  Others of influence in my past would be my parents, my children, and my three favorite books.  These are the primary instruments that shaped my life.  However, the most exciting part of life now is taking all the things in my past that made me...me...and finding a partner, wife, and best friend to take them to levels I had never considered existed.  The ingredients are mixed and the cake is in the oven...and she is the one that makes sure it doesn't fall.  There are many parts of my past journey that we cannot share together beyond those racing thoughts, such as my past with the horses.  The shaping of my life continues, reflecting on what is most important in my life is what feeds the continuing evolution of my spirit.  One chapter of this reflection my Lizzie and I do share has to do with the three most important books in my life, to find the atman within me:

• The Little Prince, by Antoine de St. Xupery
• Walden, by Henry David Throeau, and
• Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse