Saturday, February 27, 2010

Noteworthy Blogs / The Path of the Horse


 
She is part is part starlight and dewdrops,
She embodies wind and wing-ed seed,
She is sun on the run...
She is Life-Unfolding, 
Beckoning us to follow with joy and wonder. 
                 --L.Gerard
Several years ago, Kris McCormack purchased the rock painting you see above to send as a gift to a very inspirational woman.   Carolyn Resnick sent me a very thoughtful thank you after receiving it and I feel good knowing she appreciates the subject of the painting and also the medium (Carolyn loves rocks).  I am sharing the image of this rock in today's journal entry because the feeling of this artwork vibrates with the sensation of enthusiasm for life, as well as suggesting a journey is underway--a movement forward toward life's unfolding...like a path is being followed...

I have always felt propelled forward, filled with gratitude for my past experiences (even the negative ones) though there were times when maybe I clung to old ideas and comfortable habits longer than I should have.  In those times I experienced a strange inertia, like a paralysis.  Even so, I did not close myself off from awareness and eventually some serendipitous stimulus would put me back onto the path forward.

 
Let the past go--it is anyway already gone,
And the wind, just now, is dancing in the trees
Hoping you will take notice and come dancing, too.
                                      --L.Gerard


 
 The author walks  a path with Altamiro, on the day he was first introduced to the existing herd at Ravenseyrie as a yearling back in 2006.



 Feeling propelled forward by some guiding hand is different than the sensation of searching for something because you feel lost.  In my twenty-seven years with horses, I haven't truly  felt lost, rather I have felt dissatisfied.  The inertia I would occasionally experience was due to realizing that the knowledge and relationship I had with horses still wasn't "right".  Each resumption of my journey brought improvement in basic handling and academic equitation, but once these techniques were mastered, there remained that niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach that I was still missing a vital element.


Feel the fresh wind of change kiss your cheek
With the promise of better things.
Awaken now!
Embrace a new day
Create a new you!
                  --L.  Gerard

 That vital element was to turn away from cultural shaping that tells us humans are the most highly evolved, supremely intelligent beings and rightful rulers of the world.  A shift in my perception, allowed me to experience the "unity of consciousness", after which I came to see the "way forward" is to "be in the now", not separate from other beings, but existing together as equals, experiencing the mystery of the moment.


I think many of you who read the Journal of Ravenseyrie have experienced a similar dissatisfaction with your journey.  Many of you may have even been serendipitously touched by some of the same stimuli as I, and find yourself guided forward toward better things.

The well crafted documentary film, The Path of the Horse by Stormy May has been viewed by a wide audience of equestrian minded individuals and for many, it has guided them forward toward better things.  It's an eye-opening look at human/horse relationships, yet I came to feel that some deeper meaning was being missed.  It seemed to me that people were still "using" and "objectifying" horses as a means of furthering a human agenda, even if now they might not be enslaving it in the traditional equestrian sense.  In a letter to Stormy May I wrote:  

"Probably we would, could do even better to teach people that they do not require the services of a horse to show them the way to self-fulfillment...
...living mindfully in each moment exposes that fulfillment is a state of beingness, not a goal to be pursuing, if this makes any sense.

This is what I have been shown here at Ravenseyrie...it is something one can attempt to write about, by way of intimate personal experiences (that happen to include horses) but it cannot be "bottled", it cannot be marketed, it cannot be pursued.  Rather, one awakens and recognizes she has been a part of the flow all along!  There is no need to "reconnect" just a requirement to cease interfering!"

Stormy understands this, and, not resting on the laurels of her documentary film, she has begun a very evocative blog.  The Path of the Horse blog is a  way, says Stormy, "to provide a window into the simplicity of what horses can bring to our lives in contrast to the showing and even riding world.  I want to try and convey the simple joys.

I think once you read Stormy's blog you will come to realize, as I have, that the path of the horse, indeed the path of life, in all its artful simplicity, unfolds in "the now".  Rather than taking the horse out of his world and seeing what we can "do" with him in our human, goal-obsessed environment, we can begin to appreciate what the environment of the horse can "do" with us--and once equilibrium is restored to our misshapen human awareness, we can nurture each other in mutual self-actualization, sharing the path together.


Sundance, whispers something profound to Stormy May
Photo credit: Felicia Story-Chapin / Little Dragonfly Photography

3 comments:

June said...

Lynne, it is so true that we have to be willing to let go of the past. But this comes up against something else: I feel that in this culture we are too ready to let go of the past - we demolish old buildings and build new ones - we move and leave family behind, never putting down roots and making a place our home. We get rid of horses because we want a better/bigger/faster one. I feel the need to resist the current of moving on. But also the need to let go of resistance to real forward movement.
How to balance these two apparently contradictory truths?

June said...

Love the rock paintings btw!

Lynne Gerard said...

June wrote:
"I feel that in this culture we are too ready to let go of the past - we demolish old buildings and build new ones - we move and leave family behind, never putting down roots and making a place our home. We get rid of horses because we want a better/bigger/faster one."

It's true, there is a throw-away mentality that has many cultures imbalanced. Their focus is too far into the future. Just as those who are continually propping up shrines for the past are too focused on what came before. Neither can make the most of the moment--fantastic things escape them because they aren't honing their awareness of what is presently surrounding them but are longing for a different place in time.


June wrote:
"I feel the need to resist the current of moving on. But also the need to let go of resistance to real forward movement.
How to balance these two apparently contradictory truths?"

Using both Imke Spilker and Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling as examples, we can see that they dwell in the "now" of things in such a way that honors the past (they both embrace elements of classical training) while being open to the exploration of new ideas which lead them (and us) forward.

To live in the "now" is not to deny the past, or to not expect good things for tomorrow, but I think it is to have an awareness and appreciation for what today holds and not use today's energies to build monuments to the past and future, but rather to find the wisdom and beauty in the present.

What is life?
-a collective of past experiences?
-a river flowing?
-a dream of something beyond?
-either or?
-all or nothing?
-or a serpent eating its tail?