I found this and knew it was perfect for someone on this Sunday…
TO THE WOMAN WHO IS SLOWLY FADING AWAY
To the woman who has lost her spark.
To the woman whose get up and go, has well and truly gone.
This is for you.
This is to remind you, that you don’t have to be everything to everyone, every day.
You didn’t sign up for that.
Remember when you used to laugh? Sing?
Throw caution to the wind?
Remember when you used to forgive yourself more quickly for not always being perfect.
You can get that back again.
You really can.
And that doesn’t have to mean letting people down or walking away.
It just means being kinder to you, feeling brave enough to say no sometimes.
Being brave enough to stop sometimes.
And rest.
It starts the moment you realise that you’re not quite who you used to be.
Some of that is good, some of that is not.
There are parts of you that need to be brought back.
And if anyone in your life is not okay with that… they are not your people. Your people will be glad to see that spark starting to light up again.
So, if you have been slowly fading away my friend, this is the time to start saying yes to things that bring you joy and no to things that don’t.
It’s really pretty simple.”
Credit : Donna Ashworth
photo: Julie Baish
Ladies Pass it On
So happy to find you again. All of your Horse and Man emails have been going to phishphish
I have been on your list for many years and love Horse and Man. All of a sudden the emails that
you send out are going to spam or something strange.
I just learned of the wonderful donkeys and
my first thought was are there cougars in that 750 acres? Our community just lost a donkey to a cougar
who has all sorts of Big Horns to eat but had to come into our community and take one of the donkeys.
We are still heart broken.
I wonder if my problem could be related to installing McAfee protection? In your spare time could you look at my account and see if you see anything wrong that would send your emails to Phish. Thanks so much. Mary Lu
I’m sorry… I don’t know the words to help you right now. Maybe go hug someone else’s horse…
So sad and so very, very true. I recognize myself in this, and sometimes I think if I turn sideways I will be invisible. You see, I lost my forever heart horse and my forever heart dog within the same day a while back and then shortly thereafter I lost my husband who was my childhood sweetheart (and college and adulthood and senior-hood, yes, I am “older”). Then the pandemic. Then politics which bring the deep fear of domestic extremists and a strong possibility of war. Then a job (of COURSE I am thankful at my age to even HAVE a job but…) where the boss is a raving alcoholic covid- and mask-denying climate-change denier who recently was found to have not paid through to the state and the feds all the taxes he withheld from my paycheck, no, he kept it for himself despite the fact that his one-person professional practice earns several million dollars a year. Layer on a housemate, previously acquired so I could afford to keep my home after my husband passed, who now refuses to (a) pay a single penny share of rent or utilities and (b) leave, plus eats my food, uses my household supplies, and refuses to leave (and state laws prohibit evictions as my attorney sadly informed me). Yes. I am a shadow of myself, worn through with deep anxiety. I think riding again would be wonderful and make me re-appear in life, but in this pandemic and precarious national, local and personal economic situation horse-shopping or even more horse-keeping seems like a poor idea (like, what if I lose my home? I would never be able to afford to board out in my area!). The one thing that cheers me up? Reading about equine and canine rescues that are stepping up and keeping on with their work despite the terrible situation this nation brought upon itself. That fact alone gives me hope – that there are still some good people in this country who still try to do the right thing.