In riding a horse, we borrow freedom - Helen Thompson

We arrived at the horse rescue where we would spend the next three weeks volunteering, and were greeted like long lost friends by the handful of tireless beings holding space for these majestic animals.

Forty-five faces, each with a story to tell, dotted the landscape of this space they were now being asked to call home.

Some wore their heads high in resilient defiance of the hand they had been dealt.

Others stared off into the distance, still believing someone would come for them.

There were those whose heads hung low as they picked up the pieces of their broken spirits.

Then there were the few who rocked back and forth in the memory of their flight without wings.

Looking into their eyes, we knew our thoughts were many, yet our hearts echoed the grace of our collective human spirit.

We knew we had come here by choice, not chance.

We knew the essence of our purpose here was to care.

We knew the time had come for us to serve…to serve generously and with love.

We knew that amidst the resilient and the broken lay a part of our greater self.

Somehow we intuitively know where we need to go to find our answers!

I have been having lower back pain for a while now.

Coincidentally (or not) the pain started right around the time we were making the decision to pack up and leave Brazil for a life on the road.

Shortly after my arrival in Los Angeles I went to see a chiropractor I had seen on and off many years ago when we lived there.

I wanted relief.

I wanted the familiar.

I wanted a quick fix to make it all go away.

I wanted to feel my body, mind, and spirit in alignment.

I wanted it to go back to being just another day!

Before I got my swift twists and turns, I was reminded that a few years back I was offered a free adjustment anytime I was back in town and that my response at the time was “I accept that”.

As I lay face down on the table I was asked if I meditate and how often.

I was asked, “are you happy?”

It took a while for it all to sink in…but it did.

I got the swift twists and turns…but this much more I got:

I got that despite purging the familiar to embrace the unknown I was forgetting to “accept” that unknown.

I got that despite my adventurous disposition, and the twists and turns of its unfolding, I had forgotten to sit in the stillness of my own being.

I was reminded of a quote by Renee Peterson - Often we have to break down to break through!

Cults, Pickles, and Monster Trucks!

We came across an Alternative School today – or in the director’s own words, “a cult”!

The school was in a home setting in the beautiful hills of Southern California.

It was late afternoon and the only person there to greet us was the “cult” leader.

My first impression of her was that she was a recent import from a parallel universe of weird folk.

She was watering a barren lot of dirt with some weeds she chose to identify as “shoots”.

She started our interaction by inviting us to eat an odd fruit from an unidentified tree, all the while spending an excessively long time discussing the similarities between that fruit and peaches…

Fruit ingested, we proceeded to tour the home, and then sat down to discuss school policies.

The school philosophy in a nutshell, in her own words, was “We don’t control students and what they do during their time here just like we don’t want anyone to control us and what we do during our time here”.

We exchanged a few words, and  left with a parting gift, which was the “School Law-Book” – a living document passed by majority vote of students and teachers.  

Here are some examples of the school's “Laws” from the School Law-Book:

“You can only play with guns in the backyard”

“One must be certified in order to use balloons, the piano, paints, and markers”.

Needless to say, we fell in love with the school but the only thing that held us back from enrolling was the law that stated, “One person may not use two bean bags at the same time”!!!!

In an attempt to re-enter earth’s atmosphere after the cult visit, we decided to venture East to visit a horse rescue.

We found out about this place during an event a few days earlier.  We met the couple who ran the place, they told us they needed young riders to show rescue horses available for adoption, and invited us to volunteer. 

We arrived at the rescue and were greeted by the husband who was driving a monster truck (you will want to google that if you don’t know what it is), and were introduced to his most recent birthday acquisition – a miniature donkey!

The wife was “teaching” a riding lesson while eating pickles and screaming at her daughter to 'git outta here!

She immediately recognized us and without further ado told us we could help feed the horses in a few minutes when she was done “teaching”.

At that point she experienced an Alzheimer’s moment as she completely forgot about her lesson and student, and rambled for 15 minutes  – I did not pay much attention to what she was saying as I was still processing the pickles!

We toured the rescue and did not feel this was the right place for us to volunteer our time.

We bid Miss Pickles farewell and made a quick exit.

During the drive home I thought about how travel often measures our tolerance for those different from us.  

Whoever said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step has it all backwards!  

Our journey began with a wrenching ... a hurl… a blastoff … everything but a single step.  

We packed what earned its rightful place in our bags and hearts and laid the remainder to rest.

Weeks turned into a dwindling handful of days as the time to say our goodbyes drew near.

Tears flowed, yet through it all there was a sense of knowing that despite the unearthing of our roots…this was our calling.  

We knew nothing of what would lie ahead…yet this much we knew:

We will meet ourselves and each other at our highest and lowest points.

We will hold each other’s hands and hearts.

We will be unprepared.

We will learn to carry each other and allow ourselves be carried.

We will laugh with and at each other.

We will wish we never made it this far, or at all.

We will learn that three is not a crowd.

We will grow closer and apart in more ways than we had ever imagined.

And we will do it all together!

Here’s to us…and all that lies ahead!