“You can blame whoever you like for your problems, but that blame is like a big roadblock keeping you from the confidence you need to move forward. It keeps us from believing in ourselves because it hands over power to someone or something outside ourselves…Be on guard against blame”.
Chris Irwin “Horses Don’t Lie”
Final post of 3 in the saga: History made. The end of May will be the one year anniversary of “Romance” joining our family. My daughter’s “dream horse”. Who gave her a run for her money. My little girl so desperately wanted one thing. To go out on the trail with her. Out of the arena, off the property. Out into the endless miles of open ranch land and mountains. Needless to say, it was slow in coming. Both girl and horse are timid, yet stubborn personalities. I admit, there were times that I thought this was just the wrong horse for her. We had those hard conversations about maybe finding something else for her. Well…
I underestimated both…girl and horse. And I am reminded of what a horse can do for our soul, our character, our inner strength.
Every therapeutic riding session I have ever instructed pales in comparison to what this baby girl has accomplished of her own free-will, desire, drive and commitment.
My friends, …”well-behaved women seldom make history”…and these two commited souls have gone down in my history book as heroes. It may be small in the scheme of the horrors, challenges and hardships of the world, but it is huge in the heart of a small girl who now, I believe, can do and will do amazing things in this world. More importantly, she believes.
Thank you for reading through this little series of posts. I felt like both, she and I, needed it. And it offers a little celebration of sorts into the BIGGER WORLD out there.
“Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives” by Wayne Muller
So, DM over at his fabulous and inspiring blog heart to heart challenged me to a book review on one of my Good Read books.
I started to do my review. And just kept saving “draft” to come back to later. To be honest, I read this book a couple of years ago so, though it is one of my all-time favorites (which is why I list it in my top “good reads”), it is not fresh at the top of my mind.
#1. I will be reading this book again, to refresh and remember what I learned about “sabbathing”. It is so easy to find ourselves busy, busy again. The reminder never hurts.
#2. “Sabbath” sounds very religious. Trust me, this book is not. It is spiritual and it is beautifully written. It is an homage to peace, space, quiet, family time, alone time, rest and renewal…as the title states. It is a great reminder.
#3. I find book reviews a bit dry. Especially when I click on the title and it links to 10,000 “reviews”. Which all say basically the same thing.
So…
I thought that I’d take this review and put my twist on it.
I heard a great talk at a spiritual center that I attend. The speaker mentioned this book which was how I came upon it. I had to read it after that. Library didn’t have it so I ordered it used. I think off Amazon. Years later, after reading this book, this is what I STILL do and this is how this book helped CHANGE my life and bring me more into the present and being more conscious.
TAKE A SABBATH MINUTE–I take a ten minute (or so) “sabbath” every day. My cell phone alarm is set to go off at 12:30 pm every…single…day. I call it my “sabbath alarm” or my “meditation alarm”. When it goes off, it reminds me to STOP, take a moment, breathe. I try to do a 5-10 minute quiet meditation or simple breathing and sitting still. I don’t stress about it though. At first, I started this and found that it sometimes stressed me out. I’m in the middle of something (!) and that damn sabbath alarm goes off. Now, I know when it goes off it just means -breathe-. So, if I am driving down the highway when I hear it, I may just simply slow down a bit and take four or five deep breaths, but continue on. EYES OPEN of course. If I am on a horse and hear it go off in my back pocket, I will breathe deeper and take a moment to look around at the gorgeous flowers blooming below that I hadn’t really noticed. Just that extra moment of coming into “the moment” and being. If, however, I am at home and able to take the 10 minutes, I will sit down for a break and do a mini-meditation. It is just a moment (be it a deep 5 second breath in the middle of chaos or a 10 minute sit-down meditation if I can)…it’s a moment to remember what’s important.
HAVE A SABBATH BOX–One other thing I took from this book that I still practice today is the “sabbath box”. An area of our home (shelf on the side of the kitchen island) where the cell phones in the household go when everyone gets home for the evening. It’s not forever. It’s just for now. We can check them every so often if we need to. But it reminds us to set them aside and enjoy home, enjoy family. Not to have them on our hip or back pocket attached to us, which becomes such a habit. So easy to check, to grab, to look at. So easy that we don’t even realize the time spent if we added up the minutes. It becomes unconscious. Then, when I go to check my phone–it is a conscious thing. I can check any voicemails or respond to any texts and then it goes back in the sabbath box. So it becomes a conscious action that is kept to a particular time frame. Rather than on-going and seeping into every moment. When I play a board game with my daughter, I AM PLAYING A BOARD GAME WITH MY DAUGHTER. And she feels that too.
ONE DAY OFF ON YOUR TERMS–Sunday is a “sabbath day”. I’m not religious really. I call myself spiritual. I chose Sundays because that is simply the quietest day in my home and my life. I am not completely out of commission on Sundays. I just consciously try to keep those days schedule’s clear and quiet. Usually it is a day of staying home. My daughter and I ride our horses together almost every Sunday. I cook a nice dinner. I am VERY selective about accepting any invitations on a Sunday. I will if it is deemed truly important. But, otherwise I don’t schedule anything. I simply tell friends and others (including people who beg for riding lessons on Sundays because it’s their ONLY day off) that Sunday is family day in my home.
In conclusion, even though it’s been a couple of years since I read this book-you can see that many of the practices that the book encouraged me to adopt STILL live with me today. That tells you what a great and life-changing book this was for me. For anyone who is seeking just a touch more peace, quiet, spirituality or just a quiet sunset with a cold, uninterrupted beer in the midst of a crazy busy life, I definetly recommend giving this one a read. And, it’s a quick easy read too. Good for…..say, a “sabbath sunday”?
barnraised 