Connection
Two years before going to seminary I stopped going to church. I don’t normally talk so directly about such things, at least not on social media. But I can’t help compare the experience to a situation I had with my horse Luna about two decades later.
Luna developed a grapefruit sized abscess on the side of her face. For a few months, while it healed, I could not ride her. The wound was pretty nasty and part of the treatment was to clean it regularly. So, she and I began a different routine. Instead of our regular rides it became regular brushing and just hanging out, not doing much of anything. At some point during that time I realized, “Wait, we are not ‘doing’ much of anything, but somehow I feel more connected to her, and that she seems more connected to me.” It was a bit of a surprise, and I made note of it.
During those two years prior to attending seminary, when I stopped going to church, I had a similar experience. I had moved and the church I had been attending was too far away. So, instead, each Sunday I would go to the beach, sit on the pier and just ‘be’ - watching the waves, thinking, reading, journaling. When it came time to fill out my seminary application I looked back and realized that even though for two years I hadn’t been ‘doing’ much, I somehow felt more connected.
Fast forward a few years and I was at a horse clinic, seeking to learn more about this life with and among horses. The clinic was being led by Mark Rashid, a horseman but also a wise sage - perhaps the cowboy equivalent of Mr. Miyagi. He said something that stopped me in my tracks. “The way for us to ‘connect’ with our horses,” he said, “is to stop trying so hard to connect.” I was speechless. (Which, if you know me, you know doesn’t come easily!)
He said that often in our attempts to ‘connect’ with our horses we actually block the communication that we seek. “Imagine there is a tube going from the heart of the horse to the heart of the person.” All the ‘connecting’ that we try to do actually blocks the tube. What we need to do is simply ‘be’ and let the horse do the connecting.
And there it was. #Connection
