Horse on Community

Sometimes, when I meditate, animals will come through what looks like a huge gate or arch way.  It seems that this is a way that the Universe opens the door for me to learn.

In this meditation, several horses came through the arch way to chat with me.  

Some unusual things were happening with them.  The two horses spoke with one voice.  Their movements were almost identical.  The pictures that they shared with me were similar, and not exact.  I asked them why there was this discrepancy in their movement and pictures.  They laughed!  They said that they were each unique and had no reason to copy the other.  They said that they were community so shared thoughts and lessons, and what they knew, for the good of the herd.

I had a short conversation with them.  I learned much!

• Although there is a leader determined by strength and ability to fight, Horse is basically not political.
• Every horse in the herd has its place.  To lose a member of the herd is to disrupt the community and throw it out of balance.  Mostly – we as humans do not feel this loss.
• The herd is healing to its members.  The community gives the individual strength to overcome.  
• The Oneness helps the herd to see what must be healed or mended.  Oneness strengthens, and does not divide.
• All herd members but the premier stallion takes turns guarding the foals.  This is again to protect the herd and its growth.  This is a wonderful design in Nature to ensure that the young survive.  The adult horses do not attack and abuse the young.  
• The healthy members protect the weaker members and they especially the elderly horses.  The elderly horses carry the memories of the herd and share them freely.  They are the historians.  
• Horses believe in karma – that if they do not follow the “Horse” code, that they will return in the same circumstances until they do understand and follow the horse code.

Blessings,

Judy

Being Mindful Every Day

When the breeze blows, and the smell of the ocean falls over the land, and brushes my face, I think about being mindful.  We all fully expect to mindful or fully present when we are in meditation.  Yet, when I was sitting in my space the other day, Creator moved in and asked me to be more mindful everyday.  

My first thought was, “I am”.  And, I heard this booming laugh.  

And then I remembered that one of the teachings of Spirit is the understanding of “I AM”.

I then thought, what if I just say, “I am mindful.”

With that thought, a rush of energy lifted me and flowed through me.

Being mindful every day means that you are fully aware of what is around you.  It is paying attention to the small children, the homeless man, and the smell of smoke in the air.  It is finding that balance and shifting from being focused in your mind, on your own things, to shifting to the environment and seeing the inter-connectedness of all things.    It is being aware that we are not alone, and that we are part of the whole.

If you have the trait of being observant and paying attention, you are mindful.  If you are always in victim mode, you are blaming.  Being mindful is rewarding.  Try it.

Blessings, 

Judy

How Fast Do You Get Up After Being Kicked Down?

Sometimes it seems like life doesn’t treat us very well.  And, we all have stories where it seems like everything was against us, and yet we pulled ourselves up by the socks and we kept going.

I do some speaking from time to time, and I am always looking for good stories to tell.  One of my friends sent me this story.  It is so good, I thought that I would share it with you.  

Blessings,

Judy

Get Up

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life. 

In his book, "A View from the Zoo", Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its first lesson.  The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself

 Picture from National Geographic: Kids

directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. 

When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. 

Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it. 

The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin. 

Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work. 

"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do." 

- Craig B. LarsonIllustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal

Blessings,

Judy