Mars, the moon, Venus and a little bit of light down a country fence to take us into solstice…everyday magic stumbled upon in evening chores that ran late as they so often do. Thank goodness I stopped for a breath and looked up…
children
this moment
this moment
this moment
Stardust Rhythms — Ramblings of the Claury
solstice from the barn
A quiet solstice day and night it has been. Last night, the near full moon turned red. Today was an all-time record heat day. Emotions and turbulence have run high. Kept it as calm and quiet this long, hot day as I could manage for my own well-being. Molded yellow beeswax suns to hang in the window. Baked sun cookies. Hosed the horses down with cold mist twice and added ice to their water in the middle of the day. Settled outside to watch the full moon rise silent with my little girl and her dog. Sudden dark clouds blew in. Covered the moon rise completely. We still admired the fire red spot of Mars and had some juice under the stars. I got her out of bed later when the clouds cleared enough to see the moon. It did not have the red it raged last night in my solitude. Sudden gusts of wind blew a chair over and then a sprinkle of rain that passed so quickly we would’ve never known had we not been standing under the wide open sky at that moment. In the midst of chaos, I tried to find the gratitude in that moment and gave her a kiss on the cheek as she went back to bed.
this moment
this moment
this moment
this girl
this girl. Have I written enough about her lately? Have I sung her praises here on these pages recently? Tonight, I must. This girl, I tell you. She is. She is amazing. She is beautiful. She is strong. She is incredible. She is strength.
You know, it’s one of those things you just can’t write. You just can’t find the words. She is poetry in motion. She is grace on earth. There just aren’t words in my humble fingers that can even begin to touch it.
But, if I could for a moment please…try to break it down simply.
I sprained my finger the other day. It hurts like hell. Much more than I would have thought for such an injury. My middle finger has been swollen and black as can be for three days. It hurts so damn bad. My husband had to go out of town for work today. And, I, now own a therapeutic riding business that is not quite “in business” yet, but has five rambunctious horses who are worked up and hyper from five days of snow and they JUST DON’T LISTEN WHEN I TELL THEM TO SETTLE DOWN because I’m in pain and need a few days off!!!
As I was saying, this girl. She stepped up. She trucked the feed around all morning, noon and evening meals. She caught, haltered and stood with each of the horses for the farrier this morning (whom I tried to cancel, but didn’t catch in time) for a total of three hours. This girl. She cleaned stalls, spread shavings and trekked through the mud and muck from four days of snow now melting.
And all this, when all I asked of her to do was PLEASE halter the horses for the farrier when I saw the truck pulling in after I was unsuccessful in cancelling the appointment in time.
The rest of the work was THIS GIRL’S choice.
BUT the best, by far, was when I hugged her and said thank you to her. And she responded with “don’t say thank you”.
“But I am really thankful for all your help today, baby”
“I don’t want you to say thank you”
“Well I’m going to say it anyway”
“Well fine, but you don’t have to”
Wow. What did I do to deserve this girl?
Thank you God.
And then, she went to three hours of dance class, came back home, walked her puppy and read half of the novel “Matilda” only to go to sleep asking what we are doing tomorrow.
I think I will take this girl for ice cream tomorrow.
barnraised 