Patience & Perseverance

Friends,

I was in the woods yesterday with my daughter at a sort of parent-daughter New Years gathering. As we stood around a fire holding small pine branches, we were each asked to say a word or two about our intentions for 2022.

One person stepped in from the circle and, as he laid down his pine branch offering, he said "patience and perseverance." The words echoed in my mind. Patience and perseverance.

I think we can all use a healthy dose of both of those right now. But, unfortunately, our society has become so accustomed to instant gratification. The idea of striving towards or waiting to fulfill a desire or a dream is often not embraced.

Yet, while we sometimes get immediate gratification for life's easy things, for the big stuff, the world doesn't really work that way. Pursuits and dreams take time and hard work, i.e., patience and perseverance.

In keeping with that, this week, one of my lifelong dreams came true.
I got my first horse.

We welcomed AJ, a 25-year-old retired jumper and therapy horse, to our aspirational little farm. A horse rescue group had connected his barn to me, saying that AJ needed a "soft place to land" and live out his life.
Nothing softer than my heart for animals!

Yes, we have had horses for several years, but they were for my daughters.

When AJ arrived and came off the trailer, I took his lead rope from the woman, and AJ became mine.

As my daughter, Lotus, walked with us into the barn, she said, "Mom, you're 51 years old, and you just got your first horse. It's a big moment."

Yes. It really really is.

I have waited and wished and worked for this moment.
I am, at once, overwhelmed and overjoyed.
This has been a life journey.

My daughters were 12 and 11 when they each got their own horse.
It took me 40 years longer.

They had the right mother and our life circumstances that made it possible.
I was born to the right mother, but I had no access to horses because of a different set of life circumstances. The subject of another newsletter.

Still, I listened to the whisper of my soul.
I was patient enough and persevered.

And now, the dream, and legacy is complete.

Welcome home, AJ.
You are, truly, a dream come true.

Wishing you all a week filled with patience and perseverance.

With so much love.

Kari