When I was little, I started taking riding lessons from a woman named Mrs. Griffin. She only had a two horses, and a tiny outdoor ring, so during a few rainy weeks, lessons were cancelled. In the meantime, Griffin said I needed to buy a riding helmet, so Mom took me out to a place called Red Fox Stables, a barn equipped with a tack store. As a result, we ended up talking to one of the instructors who sold us a package of lessons. After that, I no longer rode with Griffin. I became a Red Fox rider, and I ended up spending a good part of my life at that barn. Later, they sold the barn, but I admit that I still wish this land was mine:
I leased a pony, owned two horses there, made a slew of friends, started teaching at the young age of fifteen and after college (I went there for horses but ended up in the writing program...another lovely connection), I worked at Red Fox as a professional trainer. I remember Red Fox as an integral part of my life, both in childhood and adulthood. Being around horses really saved me from myself for many years, and it turned into a wonderful career. Wholly, it changed my life.
And still later, I used these experiences to flesh out my first book, GRIFFIN FARM. Then when I had to deal with back pain from all of the riding, I checked out some yoga classes, which later led to a career in teaching yoga:
So strange. All of this happened -- Red Fox, college, Griffin, yoga, two careers -- simply because we had to buy a helmet one day. If it weren't for that, my life would have been wholly different, I'm sure.
Isn't it amazing the way our life patterns unfold? But in the divine sense, I usually don't know why things are happening in the way that they are until much later. I wish I could foresee such growth, guidance, and reasoning, but I usually only notice it in hindsight. When the truth comes to fruition, when all of the connections become real, it can be so beautiful.
In preschool, I met a girl who became my best friend until I was fourteen or so, when life, school, and such separated us. Then our entire families became friends. We did Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays, everything together, all of us. We still stay connected. A few months ago, this girl's younger sister contacted me; she had moved back in town, and we had coffee. So then I struck up a closer friendship with the younger sister, and now we walk and hike together at least once a week. It's a time that I look forward to the way some people anticipate Christmas. All because I met the girl's older sister in preschool.
Connections. I believe in the "god inside," but I also believe that there has to be something magnificent out there, something pushing and pulling us closer to each other, closer to a higher self, and closer to a higher power, if we wish to seek it. But the answers may come at the strangest times and in the meantime, life can seem so much like a confusing mystery.
Let me know that my higher power is in charge today, that what is happening is right for me, right now, for my journey. When I think this way, I feel peace.
C.A. MacConnell
