Years ago my water bed was delivered at 9 PM on Halloween - I slept on cold water

I sat out in the sun today looking at the golden leaves on the pecan trees set against the dark green pines. I was waiting to show my Jeep to a fellow... it's been for sale for a month. Hard time to sell things... I had the Jeep out by the highway with a sign on it. This did not go well. I ought to have realized; people "messed" with it. I felt violated. The guy today was nice and did not criticize my precious Jeep (that pulled me out of the Santa Cruz river on many occasions, drove from Tubac to Las Cruces at night in howling storms with wind, rain, hail and crazed tractor trailers blasting past us; everything I owned stuffed inside of it and strapped to the roof rack!). He was pleased with how the engine sounded, how the body had no damage, etc. He saw through eyes that recognized the positives. I dropped the price for him. We'll see if he buys it. I hope he does. Others saw through different eyes. Now I am thinking about how I disconnected from my own "good" sight. I let all the outside stuff wrap up my mind, my feelings and reactions into a wad of stress and irritation. Oops. I must relax into a place of respecting my own presence, of being inside myself and allowing the outside stuff to do its thing without my attaching to it. I can be more PRESENT and therefore less affected by what occurs around me. I have moved 7 times in a year and 3 months... it's true (as Buckaroo Bonzai says): where ever you go, there you are.

Re-turning (like a prayer wheel)

I am now happily committed to life in New Mexico. How nice it is to be back home. The Arizona adventure is one I'm glad that I had, even with the "horse rescue" thing being such a disappointment. I made some incredible friends. The Tubac studio fed a lifelong passion of mine and my Art is now way more important to me than ever before. Darjeeling and Dorje' are living on a 165 acre organic farm in year round pasture with the most loving people in the world!! How well things have gone in most respects. Jer's wood business is really going well in Amado AZ and I couldn't be happier for him - he is such an artist and all around special person. When I was at the rescue place I met a horsewoman who said that no one makes it in the horse business in New Mexico (?!!)... I know she must have friends or colleages that had troubles or something, but I beg to differ! Julie Goodnight is a prime example (I hope it's okay that I mention her here). Julie is helping people in profound ways. We have internationally known trainers in NM, Dressage, Combined Training, Hunter/Jumper, Saddle Seat, Gaited, Reining, Cutting, Trail, Halter, Endurance human and equine STARS. We also have thousands of instructors/trainers working hard in backyards. I love New Mexico. The lady that made that statement is good with horses. Her idea of success may be different than mine, who knows! Here's to success for us all, on all levels! If you need information on training, care, etc., go to www.dharmahorse.com and click on the Articles page. There you will find a lot of my published articles (from the 1970's to the 2000's) and you can read the ones that might be helpful. Remember, Love is the active promotion of the wellbeing of the love object. If we love our horses and each other in THIS way, our lives are successful and we will be loved (in THIS way), too. Namaste'

"We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, therefore is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle

Not just excellence, of course, but procrastination, anger, worry, fears / joy, sillyness, tranquility, everything we experience on a regular basis is habitual. We can change our habits if we want to. It is how we "train" our horses... we make the things we want them to do easy, habitual, and we make the things we don't want difficult for them to do. Soon, we have a horse we can communicate with.

It's not what happens to us or around us, its how we act in each moment that matters.

Everything we experience helps us to see who we really are... we can hide much from ourselves when we blame outside things for our circumstances. Facing life makes us real.

Onward and Inward

Silver City was great. Tatiana's Gallery is a special experience and the Zen paintings look quite right in her place. You know, life is its own answer. What matters is what we accomplish inside, not so much outside of us. My publisher is having a "contest"/ rewards thing for October, so any books sold before Nov 1st count for this. If you haven't bought "the Well Being of Pets and Companions" yet, do so in October! Go to www.rosedogbookstore.com and click on non-fiction, medicine/science to order. Learn Phytotherapy principles for all animals and even people.