(“As they progress, that boost will become less necessary.”)

“If this ever changing world we live in makes you give in and cry . . .”
No, obviously I didn’t write that. That was Sir Paul.

I didn’t write “Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain . . .” either. That was Sonny.

And I didn’t write any of the hectic, turbid lyrics to We Didn’t Start the Fire, although I can relate to all of the above.

It’s a wonder that the landscape—both political and cultural—which we inhabit gives us any opportunity to relate to the natural world that seems so far away anymore. Or that we can slow time enough to bask in the quiet relationship that one horse/one person can share. Thank God we are still able to. It may be all that saves us.

As the year passes, I could congratulate my friends, my students who have achieved milestones—a Gold Medal, a Silver, a Bronze. Or a day when everything fell into placed and there was harmony and communication and Oneness. And I’m all too aware that some need my approbation to feel legitimized. Perhaps it’s a hole in my teaching that they need this. Or maybe as they progress, that boost will become less necessary.

Yes, it’s all about the journey. But competition or lessons can provide mile markers so the journey isn’t an endless slog across a trackless wasteland. What it comes down to is For all your travail and angst and toil, are you a better person for it? Whether you’ve triumphed or not yet lived up to your expectations, have you found in yourself a strength that you didn’t know was there? If so, you have succeeded.