a pelo

I took a little spin ‘a pelo’ (bareback) with Alegría yesterday.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one innocent sentence says so much more than just those ten words.

The thing is, those ten words have been more than a decade in process. A decade of learning to overcome fear, gaining confidence in the saddle, learning, poco a poco, how to hold myself, how to connect with my horse, how to see and hear that which I didn’t have eyes to see or ears to hear.

Those ten words also represent an ‘unlearning’ as well - an unlearning of depending entirely on the externals - my saddle to keep me safe, balanced, secure and an environment free of unknowns that might frighten my horse. An unlearning of depending solely on externals and realizing that the balance, alignment and agency I have sought are actually inside of me, have become me.

It was a simple thing, that short ride yesterday. And yet it represents so much more.

It seems to me that it is important, every now and again, to stop and take stock of where you are and where you have come from. Of who you are today, and how that person has changed and grown. What threads have endured? And what new tapestries have been woven out of the experiences that life has put along your path?