I was 10 years old when I realised I am drawn to things that are a bit 'different'!...
...I was at a friends house, my mother came to collect me. Before leaving, my friends mother, who had been making cuddly toy lions to sell for a charity, asked me if I would like one. I smiled and said I did. She asked me to select one, my own mother watching over me. I chose a delicious chocolate brown lion, with bright orange mane and tail. My mother instantly took it off me and told me to take a sandy coloured lion as that was what lions looked like - unlike the one I had selected.
This is my inspiration today. It hit me like a brick! The timing rides on the back of last week's Horseman calling competition in the UK. It relates very well as a follow on to my post called Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil.
What' my point? It is this... We can go through life with our head in the sand, pretending things don't exist, or we can stretch up tall, look around and see what is really going on around us.
I choose to stretch up tall. I chose to be different or at least if I see things in a different light from others, I'll voice what I see. Knowing myself as I do, this will only happen when its connected to something I love, and feel passionately about.
Last weekend's post was read (at the time of writing this post), by 186 people. The highest readership of any of my posts yet. I wondered why?
I was curious and so I went to look at the status update I made on the face book page that was advertising the Horseman Calling Event, to see what kind of reaction my comment there had created, if any. Would that explain the surge of readers?
Below are the comments on the Event's Facebook page, including my comment:
This is what I wrote:
Debbie Percy Your agenda and descriptive text sounds too much like the horse is being used as "servant" to its human "masters" - so much focus on technique, methods and competition doesn't boost my confidence that its a learning event, instead it feels more like a money and ego boosting opportunity. Personally, I'm struggling to see where the "good of the horse" bit is addressed and how that claim can be made. Debbie at jigsawequine ltd.
In response someone else wrote:
I don't know who Debbie Percy is but were you at the event? I don't really like your comment being on my post,i don't agree with you so please take it off and put it on your own post. None of the horse/ponies at the event were "servants". It was a brilliant event and if all horses could be started this way we would have a lot of happy horses and owners.
Someone else then wrote:
I was at this even with 3 of my horses, If you had been there Debbie you would realise, that what you have written is the biggest load of tosh.
(That was the end of the comments. Not an outpouring by any stretch of the imagination and not enough to explain 186 post readings).
I have never been afraid of feedback or criticism. If you dish it out you have to be willing to receive it back - well founded or otherwise. I decided not to reply to these comments on face book either word for word or sentiment by sentiment. I'd had my say and now wished to move on.
Except.... one thing in particular got me thinking, it was the words:
In those few chosen words lies fear. It's as if we think today, that a person has to "BE SOMEONE" in order to voice an opinion! Such thinking doesn't reflect a democracy, a modern century, or freedom of speech. But deeper than that it is a sad reflection of how fearful people can be.
It seems that someone (me in this case) dares to be critical of something and because I don't carry fame, fortune or a book or horse gadget to my name, to legitimise my view, I don't exist. My view isn't welcome. I simply don't have the right!
It would have been easy to react and post a reply defending myself, my position or rights as a free citizen of the UK! (See how pompous that sounds - because it is)! Inspiration rarely comes from a place of self protection or attack and nor do followers or converts!
What I'm learning is that when you read something like the above and get a strange energy rise inside you - its usually a signal that it's time to grow for YOU, and not to react as you might if on auto-pilot!
By defending ourselves or justifying our actions we legitimise those very feelings of being attacked as having a role to play in our psyche. Then they take root and stay put! It's as if we give them a 'part to play' in our own life script. Once we do that - they'll keep coming to the surface looking for their cue! If we don't want such thoughts in our script - we have to learn to let go!
Terms like "freeing ourselves" from our thoughts are banded about but for me, it's more about trying to harness my energy, thoughts and feelings and stopping them from scattering - so I can be a bit more centred and grounded. There's no moral high ground at play here, just a desire to live a more simple, easy, fun and honest life. So that I can figure out what is really important to me and those I care about.
As an illustration, do you ever find yourself being somewhat 'melodramatic'? I can slip into it easily! Getting on my high horse (above) about democracy, 21st century, human rights are all examples of self created, self inflicted 'diva drama'! If I had responded to the facebook conversation from that place of thinking I'd now be in a ping pong battle of comments with people I don't even know! To what end or good?
I think many of us tend to spend our lives either trying to figure out how to keep things from happening (being unpopular, ignored, isolated etc), or, we are trying to figure out what to do because they did happen! Seems almost funny when you think about it like that!
Hopefully, what is actually happening for more and more people is that these moments that test us, are just situations pushing us to the edges of our own envelope! Once we reach the edge we can work on going beyond that barrier, remove or unblock it and whatever caused it.
So where does this fear come from? What can we do to be free of it?
It's source is our psyche - and its only in their because of our past experiences and resulting beliefs that are now well formed within us.
Spotting our own fear rising up from inside us has to be a good starting point if we want to ultimately expel it.
How do we do this? So, next time you or I read anything about horse care/management that fires up a reaction in us, ponder the following....
These are some of the signals you can listen out for. It suggests the fear is trapped inside of us.
The good news is that we all have the means and opportunity to let it go once we realise it is there. Every time we come across someone who is radical, a bit 'left field' or 'out with the fairies' maybe they aren't! May be they are a paradigm shift - a gift, in front of you inviting you in. Once we are willing to take a peak and not punish that person, we might find a new way to live - without fear and without being trapped by unhelpful reactions to the new or different, much like my chocolate lion!
At the end of the day, so many people who have horses in their care, really do want to do the best for them. Most of us just don't know yet what that is, who to believe and which way is North amidst the choices and extremism.
My advise is not to follow! NOT to be part of the norms or fashion fad of the moment. Think before hanging out with people who are quick to attack, defend, justify, position or punish others for simply expressing a point of view. We might find something to agree with them about if we stop long enough to listen, and that usually entails a whole body experience!
Put more eloquently and in more detail, from a first hand birds eye view point is this write up from EponaTV.
As Winston Churchill once said:
...I was at a friends house, my mother came to collect me. Before leaving, my friends mother, who had been making cuddly toy lions to sell for a charity, asked me if I would like one. I smiled and said I did. She asked me to select one, my own mother watching over me. I chose a delicious chocolate brown lion, with bright orange mane and tail. My mother instantly took it off me and told me to take a sandy coloured lion as that was what lions looked like - unlike the one I had selected.
I got my chocolate coloured lion and still remember the moment now, 39 years on, of saying back to my mum "but I don't want a lion that looks like a lion, I want this one - it's different".
This is my inspiration today. It hit me like a brick! The timing rides on the back of last week's Horseman calling competition in the UK. It relates very well as a follow on to my post called Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil.
What' my point? It is this... We can go through life with our head in the sand, pretending things don't exist, or we can stretch up tall, look around and see what is really going on around us.
I choose to stretch up tall. I chose to be different or at least if I see things in a different light from others, I'll voice what I see. Knowing myself as I do, this will only happen when its connected to something I love, and feel passionately about.
Last weekend's post was read (at the time of writing this post), by 186 people. The highest readership of any of my posts yet. I wondered why?
I was curious and so I went to look at the status update I made on the face book page that was advertising the Horseman Calling Event, to see what kind of reaction my comment there had created, if any. Would that explain the surge of readers?
Below are the comments on the Event's Facebook page, including my comment:
This is what I wrote:
Debbie Percy Your agenda and descriptive text sounds too much like the horse is being used as "servant" to its human "masters" - so much focus on technique, methods and competition doesn't boost my confidence that its a learning event, instead it feels more like a money and ego boosting opportunity. Personally, I'm struggling to see where the "good of the horse" bit is addressed and how that claim can be made. Debbie at jigsawequine ltd.
In response someone else wrote:
I don't know who Debbie Percy is but were you at the event? I don't really like your comment being on my post,i don't agree with you so please take it off and put it on your own post. None of the horse/ponies at the event were "servants". It was a brilliant event and if all horses could be started this way we would have a lot of happy horses and owners.
Someone else then wrote:
I was at this even with 3 of my horses, If you had been there Debbie you would realise, that what you have written is the biggest load of tosh.
(That was the end of the comments. Not an outpouring by any stretch of the imagination and not enough to explain 186 post readings).
I have never been afraid of feedback or criticism. If you dish it out you have to be willing to receive it back - well founded or otherwise. I decided not to reply to these comments on face book either word for word or sentiment by sentiment. I'd had my say and now wished to move on.
Except.... one thing in particular got me thinking, it was the words:
"I don't know who Debbie Percy is"....
In those few chosen words lies fear. It's as if we think today, that a person has to "BE SOMEONE" in order to voice an opinion! Such thinking doesn't reflect a democracy, a modern century, or freedom of speech. But deeper than that it is a sad reflection of how fearful people can be.
It seems that someone (me in this case) dares to be critical of something and because I don't carry fame, fortune or a book or horse gadget to my name, to legitimise my view, I don't exist. My view isn't welcome. I simply don't have the right!
Now that is the language of FEAR if ever I heard it!
It would have been easy to react and post a reply defending myself, my position or rights as a free citizen of the UK! (See how pompous that sounds - because it is)! Inspiration rarely comes from a place of self protection or attack and nor do followers or converts!
What I'm learning is that when you read something like the above and get a strange energy rise inside you - its usually a signal that it's time to grow for YOU, and not to react as you might if on auto-pilot!
By defending ourselves or justifying our actions we legitimise those very feelings of being attacked as having a role to play in our psyche. Then they take root and stay put! It's as if we give them a 'part to play' in our own life script. Once we do that - they'll keep coming to the surface looking for their cue! If we don't want such thoughts in our script - we have to learn to let go!
Terms like "freeing ourselves" from our thoughts are banded about but for me, it's more about trying to harness my energy, thoughts and feelings and stopping them from scattering - so I can be a bit more centred and grounded. There's no moral high ground at play here, just a desire to live a more simple, easy, fun and honest life. So that I can figure out what is really important to me and those I care about.
As an illustration, do you ever find yourself being somewhat 'melodramatic'? I can slip into it easily! Getting on my high horse (above) about democracy, 21st century, human rights are all examples of self created, self inflicted 'diva drama'! If I had responded to the facebook conversation from that place of thinking I'd now be in a ping pong battle of comments with people I don't even know! To what end or good?
- How will that 'do good for the horse' or anyone else who wishes to voice a point of view and be heard?
I think many of us tend to spend our lives either trying to figure out how to keep things from happening (being unpopular, ignored, isolated etc), or, we are trying to figure out what to do because they did happen! Seems almost funny when you think about it like that!
Hopefully, what is actually happening for more and more people is that these moments that test us, are just situations pushing us to the edges of our own envelope! Once we reach the edge we can work on going beyond that barrier, remove or unblock it and whatever caused it.
Typically, those things that are blocked and buried are the root of our fear!
So where does this fear come from? What can we do to be free of it?
It's source is our psyche - and its only in their because of our past experiences and resulting beliefs that are now well formed within us.
Spotting our own fear rising up from inside us has to be a good starting point if we want to ultimately expel it.
How do we do this? So, next time you or I read anything about horse care/management that fires up a reaction in us, ponder the following....
- Does it make you want to stop the author/originator from ever doing/saying it again?
- Do you want to defend yourself, your position, your knowledge?
- Do you feel the need to protect yourself in some way?
- Do you do whatever you can to stop feeling 'stirred up' by them/their comment?
These are some of the signals you can listen out for. It suggests the fear is trapped inside of us.
The good news is that we all have the means and opportunity to let it go once we realise it is there. Every time we come across someone who is radical, a bit 'left field' or 'out with the fairies' maybe they aren't! May be they are a paradigm shift - a gift, in front of you inviting you in. Once we are willing to take a peak and not punish that person, we might find a new way to live - without fear and without being trapped by unhelpful reactions to the new or different, much like my chocolate lion!
At the end of the day, so many people who have horses in their care, really do want to do the best for them. Most of us just don't know yet what that is, who to believe and which way is North amidst the choices and extremism.
My advise is not to follow! NOT to be part of the norms or fashion fad of the moment. Think before hanging out with people who are quick to attack, defend, justify, position or punish others for simply expressing a point of view. We might find something to agree with them about if we stop long enough to listen, and that usually entails a whole body experience!
Put more eloquently and in more detail, from a first hand birds eye view point is this write up from EponaTV.
As Winston Churchill once said:
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