I have been spending my "spare time" recently working on the curriculum for Cooper's Crossroad's Farming For Resilience six week fall program. To say that it is inspiring work is an understatement. The syllabus it filled with lessons like "Gaining Gratitude", "Caring, Communication and Compassion", "Capturing Courage" and "Guidance on Gratitude". I get excited when I allow myself the pleasure of hours with this work. Having done Farming For Resilience programs for several years now, the personal anticipation and joy of delivering these messages is hard to beat. I see faces light up, voices able to speak, confidance shining through and trust developing, as the lessons of courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion come to reality through the horses.
The content of the curriculum is a combination of horse knowledge and handling, lessons using teamwork, leadership skills, communication (verbal and non verbal), and physical challenges in the form of horse back riding. I sprinkle quotes in and around the lessons and I could not help but wind some into this blog. Sometimes, just like in riding or life, when we hear things in JUST the right way, a light bulb goes off, and we shift to more awareness, or better balence. These quotes may give you that! Please enjoy. "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." Robert Brault "It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack." - Germany Kent "Enough' is a feast" -Buddist Proverb "The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time." Douglas Wood "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once amoung the things you only hoped for." Epicurus "If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough." - Eckhart Gratitude is HUGE. Even in our darkest moments, there is SOMETHING we can be grateful for. So in the good moments of your life, practice gratitude for everything. Since we all have hard times in life, this practice can help us when darkness arrives, by lighting a path of gratitude. I have post it notes all over my home. Quotes of courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion usher my day in and are often the last words I see at night. I have faith that these notes will help me keep my light shining. Might that work for you? All the best, Christina