DH:  Do you remember what you said you would do if we won the lottery?

Jennie:  Adopt 2 more Wado Dogs?

DH:  Only if you want a divorce.

Jennie:  What did I say?

DH:  You said you would hire a personal trainer.

Jennie:  Oh yea I would totally do that.

DH:  Well I don’t think you have to win the lottery.  Happy Mother’s Day/Birthday!

I should say that this is not the kind of gift a husband can give to his wife unless she suggests it.  It would be analogous to a husband buying a wife a vacuum.  But the fact is that I want to get healthy and have lost 2 dress sizes over the last year simply by changing my eating habits.  But I’ve hit a plateau and I know I need to add exercise to the mix.  Plus we’re taking a long family vacation this summer and I want to go on lots of fun hikes and bike rides without killing myself.  So yea this was a perfect gift.  Now if anyone has a rockin Father’s Day gift idea I would be completely grateful because in marrying me DH gained a lot of things, but sadly a gift giving super power was not included.

I have about two hours on Sunday that has become my fuel for the week- I take horse riding lessons from my friend.

I need it, crave it and long for it during these tedious afternoons when I am trapped in the living room plotting an escape from my children.

I realized the other day at my friend Karla’s farm that it is becoming more to me than just riding for a while on a Sunday. While I’m there I’m not a mother- and I’m not a middle aged woman either. For the brief time that I spend there I am 7, 10, and 16 years old again spending time with my grandfather in spirit, and learning to ride.

I think of him quite often- even though I lost him 13 years ago. Sunday he was everywhere, watching me watch the horses and the beautiful sight before me.

This particular Sunday morning here in South Carolina was as perfect as they come. It was warm in the sunshine- but the temperature was really only hovering around 66 degrees. Mostly breezy- which is to say borderline windy. Karla’s farm is on a picturesque setting- the house sits up closer to the road, while the garden, horse pastures, barns, and training ring are behind it. Once you park and step off onto the newly- graveled driveway, you make your way to the tack room  to get your horse ready. It is there that the view rises up to meet you, shakes the cobwebs from your brain- and gives you the tingles.

Looking straight out you see the horses mingling at the fence- waiting for some attention. There are a few trees here and there which provide an ample amount of shade from the heat which is on its way any day now. The pasture goes down, farther back and merges with woods that are so thick, green and lush you are sure nothing could possibly be behind them but more trees, fields and flowers for eternity.

Above hung a Carolina Blue sky with white wisping clouds and made me look more than once just to make sure that what I was seeing was in fact, real and just not some incredibly photo shopped image. I was grateful to be there on that morning to see that view and to feel that wind and sun on my skin. Karla told me that there was a pond back there- so as I looked towards the mammoth and wise green trees rustling and shimmering- and I saw what this world was created to share. I remember thinking that if I was a religious person- THIS would be my church. Because whatever you believe in- whatever your faith- it resonated today in that pasture, trees and magnificent breeze.

I normally do not have such strong feelings when out about in nature or otherwise- and it may have to do with the strong connection horses bring me to my grandfather- but I just couldn’t shake that image of the pasture out of my head. Nowhere else have I seen it- and although I regretted not running back to my car to take a picture with my phone-I also didn’t want to cheapen it, if that makes sense. What I saw could not be put to justice in a photograph nor can it be with my words. All I know is that I saw it- it was ethereal, and I attended church today.

UPDATE:  Well this was a hard one!  There were some good experiences!  Thank you everyone for your comments!  Without further ado the winner is…Michelle P!  Enjoy it!

Greetings to those at My Human Revolution, Jennie asked me to do a guest post, normally I’m over at my other home, so here goes, thank you so much for reading!

The winter after my step father died was sort of hard, I was working a lot of hours, my mom was working as many as I was, and it was very cold in the San Luis Valley where I was living at the time.

I had a dog, a border collie named Suzie, who needed a dog house. My dad had been known for having a boat load of “crap” one of those I vastly remember was a dog house, so I grab my step brother Marvin, and head 45 miles away to get said dog house, on the way there we got to talking about his time in prison, and how he had found Buddhism and how it had changed his life.

I had heard years before about a shrine, in Crestone Colorado and asked him if he might want to go see it. We decided why not, and went. The first thing we found was a Hindu temple, the priest there was so graceful about showing us through the temple, he put some paste on our foreheads and rice. I don’t remember much about the statues we saw or anything, only that it was exceptionally peaceful there. He invited us to the full moon ritual, which I am sad to say I never made it back to. He was amazing and gave us directions to where the shrine was located.

I drove to the base of Crestone Needles, this was shortly after Halloween, and it had just snowed. The drive up to the base of the mountain truly felt as if we were transported some where else in the world, as if we weren’t in Colorado, but in Tibet, or someplace equally awesome. We parked the van, and took off up the trail we were assured ended in the shrine to Buddha. Now it had just snowed, and I was not wearing hiking boots, nor was I really that well equiped for a hike, yet we took off up this path, every now and then we would see animal tracks. I saw clearly several times that a cougar had crossed our path. Marvin kept assuring me that Buddha was protecting us, I am sure he just didn’t want me to chicken out on him.

Flags lined the path as we walked up the mountain, close to a mile maybe further, when suddenly around the corner came this golden visage, surrounded by flags, was Him, the statue of Buddha. I remember the feeling of awe and how it shook me to my very core, it said on a sign there that this statue held a part of a statue in Tibet. I know next to nothing else about this, but I will say when ever I need to get back to that feeling, that statue is where I head in my mind.

That's a mean infection!

Then he got a second ouchy that tore the skin off his finger, aggravating the infection and gave him a smart abrasion on his face.  He’s been explaining to everyone at school what has happened to him.  I wasn’t actually there at the time of the incident but Dearest Husband saw it go down and said he was afraid for a minute The Boy was concussed or worst.  In The Boy’s words here is what happened: “At the top of the stairs outside I was going down the metal railing and at the end I couldn’t touch my feet to the stairs anymore and there was a railing that I couldn’t get over so I flipped over facedown onto the ground.”  Yea.  Ouch.  Here is a pic.

Face Plant Injury

I’m actually surprised it wasn’t more serious.  If sliding down railings of an outside staircase sound good to you–think again.  But seriously  the question has to be asked: How much should we encourage our kids to take risks?  One of The Boy’s first Occupational Therapists said when he was just learning how to scoot (crawling requires the use of both arms), “Let him fall and figure out how to do things himself.”  Letting The Boy fall was hard–the monkey bars where especially hard. But The Boy figured out his own way of doing things.  He’s older now and still trying to live in a two handed world with one working hand.  Sliding down a railing isn’t the best idea granted, but we let him experiment and this was certainly an epic fail.  But I think if we were the kinds of parents that talked about how dangerous everything is and didn’t expect him to push his limits he wouldn’t have figured out half of his accommodations.  I hope next time he tries sliding down the railing he learns to slow down before he gets to the end.