BOOMER REVOLT

So I wrote one essay to add today and then deleted it. Why? I'm going to lead a revolt...a BOOMER REVOLT! We were the ones who brought Rock and Roll in to the world. We peed in a field at Woodstock and started protests over a war that shouldn't have been. Time a Boomer started something else.

I'm not going to watch any TV for a year, read any news that I don't want to or listen to Rush Limbaugh spew his vile.

I have a confession. I'm already doing that. I'm just trying to keep it simple, remember?

This Christmas one of my sons came home for the holiday. He drove in on Wednesday. His most significant other flew home to see her folks on Monday. They were both lucky. They just missed having to travel in the GREAT BLIZZARD OF 2009.

It was the real thing too. More than 12 inches fell out here with winds blowing at more than 40 MPH. It wasn't quite a whiteout, but pretty doggone close to that. We had the classic White Christmas.

On Christmas morning Big R (my son) and Big J (my husband) came down to the barn with me for chores. The horses are always glad to see the guys...lots of nickering and uh-huh-huh'ing going on. I love it when all my men, four legged and two, get along so well!

The Big guys were in the shed stall, talking over fences, tools and other guy stuff while they mucked it out and I was in the paddock, checking Lucky's hooves. They get ice balls on the bottom of their hooves this time of year when there's snow on the ground, so I like to knock the ice off once a day and check to make sure everything is A-OK. Mostly they walk out of the ice balls, but it's still a good habit to keep up with. You find them everywhere out in the pasture...these big, round, dirty ice balls the shape of a hoof. I call them hoof cookies. But I digress...and that's not SIMPLE.

I was under Lucky, checking his legs and knocking off ice when I heard this burst of laughter, so I stood up to see what was going on. Apache, my 5 year old Bashkir, had closed the lower half of the shed door on R and J and closed them in, latched it too! I need to set the scene for you though.

The shed has a big, heavy half door that closes and latches. The only time it's used that way is at grain time. Lucky stands on the outside, at his grain bucket mounted on the fence and Apache walks into his stall...always voluntarily, I might add...and I close the door between them. It keeps them from feeling the need to compete while eating. I like a nice, quiet, orderly meal time.

When the door is open, there's a hook on the back of it that keeps it in place to prevent it from blowing around in the wind and hurting one of them. The hook is placed so that it's hard for me to get to, much less a horse with it's big, sweet blocky head.

Apache thought his way around that! He figured out that if he bounces against that door just so, the hook will come undone making the door fair game. He swung the door shut, flipping the latch up and over and closed Big J and Big R inside the stall!

Think about the generalization that horse had to go through. He's watched me open and close that door for years, but always from the inside. He had to reverse the idea...the way it looked...then swing it closed and lock it. And he did it without being able to reach the hook on the back of the door, not to mention without hands.

Brilliant! Best part was that I had been sending stories to my ever patient family for years, telling them about the funny things that happen out here. They always took what I had to say with a grain of salt, knowing my skills at slight exageration when I tell a story. This time I had nothing to do with it. It was Apache all the way!

When I opened the door and they came out, Apache did a little victory lap around them too! That horse is a total hoot!

He vindicated me with one funny action. Thanks Apache! He's my super horse.

Keep it simple. Keep it natural!

Nancy,head back and laughing

I'M BACK!

It's January 4, 2010. Somehow I let this sit for more than two years without posting a thing. Guess I just didn't have that much to say.

Since my last posting, all those years ago, Lucky has completely recovered! My big red four legged "boy" is as 100% as he's ever going to be. And that's HUGE! I came so close to loosing him to repeated laminitis, white line disease and abscesses that I was nearly ready to give up. He wasn't. He made it clear that he could get better if I was willing to hang in there. I couldn't say no to that. And he made it! I learned the hard way how to make a poultice with a paper baby diaper and duct tape, how to drain a hoof abscess, how to read an xray and how to believe in Lucky when everyone else said to give up. I wouldn't wish that on anyone as a learning process, but it is the light inside the dark cloud (my preferable way of viewing the world).

Several changes to my life : I have a round pen! What a difference it makes to have a good piece of equipment. I'd been getting along for quite a while on imagination. Not a bad thing. It made me more independent with my horses...and better at improvisation with a focus. So I'm glad I waited to buy one. But just the same...WAHOO! I love having one and so do my four leggeds! Oh yeah...and an arena too! John built it. double WAHOO!

I have two students who are working with me! I'm not a certified instructor, but I'm sure working to get there. And in the meantime I'm working with two extraordinary women and their horses.

It's a bit intimidating and over the top fun at the same time. It forces me to really hone my skills with horses and in communication at the same time. Winter has us stopped for now, so I send email stories ever so often and snail mail copies of some of my favorite articles on Fear and Learning.

Even if our status changes and I'm no longer teaching them, it's given me real incentive to finish the process and to get myself certified. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to teach something that I'm so enthusiastic about, so in love with! Age is just a number and I've always been good with numbers! (My age is 58 at this posting.) So look out! I'm coming through!

This year I've decided to try something new. Instead of starting the year with the usual resolutions that I forget about in two weeks, setting myself up to feel like I can't follow through (ie. failure), I chose one word to focus on for the year. My word is "SIMPLIFY". I'm going to write here, ever so often, about the things I'm doing to SIMPLIFY my life.

And this is my first project on the road to SIMPLIFY. I'm going to try to write here every day. I love a good story and love, even more, telling it well. I think I might try addressing it to different people too, at least part of the time. I do better with an "audience". Then I'll send the link to whomever that is (first names only, I promise) and maybe have one reader a day that I know will check in. Savvy, don't you think?

It's fardling cold here, only up to 7 degrees and it's after 3PM! It was - 3 degrees this morning when I went out to do morning chores. OUCH! Once I got moving it wasn't so bad. Funny chore today (and there's always something unexpected when you work with horses) : They had icicles on their noses and forelocks. They wanted them off and I obliged . So I spent part of the morning knocking frozen horse snot off their noses! Now ask me if that isn't love?!

Nancy, laughing at the way things go!

Blue Light...Green Light, part one

A friend called me last Sunday and asked me, at the last possible moment, to go to a local psychic fair with her. I didn't hesitate to say yes. She's in a place in her life where she needs to have her friends supporting her without question. It's a matter of loving unconditionally.

Last year, in September, she lost her younger son to a drug overdose. It's the kind of pain that leaves an indelible scar on a parent...the very worse kind of loss there is. It's unnatural to loose your child. We're supposed to check out first, not the other way around.

I'm still thinking about why I said I would go, though. Originally I went because I was worried about her. She's extremely vulnerable, the perfect target for the hacks who haven't any real ability as a psychic. She needed to have someone there to keep the creeps at bay. But when she called to ask me, she also told me that there were several other friends going. She wasn't going to be alone if I didn't go, and I was pretty sure that the others were going for the same reason; to protect her and support her in her quest to communicate with her son. So why did I really go? (I rarely give up Sunday time with John. It's sometimes the only day of the week we have together.)

I was the designated driver. She had a recent back injury and didn't feel up to driving into Topeka (a good half hour away). And I'm used to driving larger vehicles since I live on a farm and drive a big truck. I was up for that part of my role in the day. And, as a rule, I'm not a very good back seat rider. I like having the wheel in my hands.

We picked up the other ladies who were going with us, a varied group of talented, well educated professionals, all of them opinionated and outspoken. It was going to be an interesting afternoon! One of them was also the girlfriend of the young man who had OD'd. She's one of those amazing young people with a more than 4.0 grade point average, very goal oriented and focused. Sheesh...way past me at the same age!

The drive in was uneventful except for the beautiful Autumn colors in the Flint Hills. The grasses were beautiful! That alone made the trip worth while for me. I came home later in the day with all kinds of colors in my head for my next pastel!

We played the old game of telling each other our "stripper" name...a combination of our first pet's name and the street we lived on as a kid. Mine was Shotsi Lamar! Pretty descriptive, wouldn't you say? I decided that with a name like that, I specialized in tassels...lots and lots of tassels that I could make go in different directions at will. BWA HA HA HAHAHAH! I crack myself up! It's an even funnier image when I think about how far south things have gone in the past few years. At any rate, it let us start the day with laughter. And that ain't hay!

When we got there, it was being held in one of the smaller expo buildings at the fair grounds. There wasn't a large group of boothes. This was going to be manageable. We'd have time to wander around and look with no pressure to find just the right place to get a reading. There were the usual number of rock sellers and fused glass people. Most of them were retired biker types with big bellies, grey pony tails and old tattoos. Nothing unexpected there.

I listened to one pitch being made about these cheap, not well made, pendants of fused glass being sold for the over the top price of $50 each. I stood at the back of the group listening to her. If she was actually selling this stuff for that kind of obscene price, her pitch was going to be worth listening to. She had a couple of shills in the audience who demonstrated the way the pendants "protected the wearer from the evils of cell phone technology." They went on to show how these little pieces of glass would interfere with the radiation coming from the cell phone "that caused cancer and other diseases". But she made the classic mistake of leaving questions open to the rest of us watching. I couldn't resist!

As soon as she asked if there were any questions, I started in on her. I peppered her with questions about how the glass had been "programed", what kind of process was used? ( answer :They were programed with a special machine.) What kind of machine? Do you have it here? Can we watch you do it? Or do you have pictures of it being done? (answer: Oh no! It's a very expensive machine, much too expensive to bring here. And the process is secrete too! Takes allot of skill and dedication to get it done just right.) So, do you have any of the glass that hasn't been "programmed"? I'd like to see a comparison done. (answer: No. That would interfere with the power of the "programmed" glass.) Oh, so you can't wear any other kind of jewelry when you're wearing this pendant, especially if it's glass?

We went on in that direction for a few other questions. I have to admit I was having fun making her squirm and work for her money. The money wasn't going to come as easy this afternoon! But wait...there's more! In the middle of our little game of question and answer, there was a ring from a cell phone...HER CELL PHONE! When she whipped it out and said "I told you not to call me here!", I lost it. I have one of those contagious laughs. It's one of those genetic gifts that both my brothers and I have. When we laugh, most of the people around us laugh too, even when they don't know what they're laughing about.

After people got finished wiping their eyes and rearranging their themselves, we all dispersed to other booths. Every time I passed her booth after that, she gave me an evil stare. I can't imagine why?! Oh me...I had way too much fun! This was going to be a very interesting afternoon.

It's Begun...

November is the month for NaNoWriMo...National Novel Writing Month. And this year I'm signed up to do it along with 90,000 other people! Talk about competition...but then again I always did love a challenge. "Look out people, coming through! Excuse me...coming through."

I started yesterday afternoon. I've written 4359 words so far. That's much better than I thought it would go for a first day.

I'm saving all my "juice" for the BIG BOOK, so this entry isn't going to be much this time around. For your entertainment and edification I'm attaching another video...no explanations needed. Just enjoy. And watch for my book on Oprah's must read list too. I give it two years. It's going to be big...HUGE! (I'll have to start thinking about what to wear on TV...)

Dream big!

Nancy, riding and gliding

In The Zone

If you look to the right of this posting, you'll see a link to a video for a juggler named Chris Bliss. I found this at the end of my morning, just before time to go out to give my equine family their noon time hay (I always do that if they're staying in the paddock. Spreads out the hay so it's more like grazing and keeps them from getting to boarded.)

This Chris Bliss is in the zone when he juggles. Watch how he moves with the music and never, ever drops that ball. It's mesmerizing! And it's what I call "being in the zone". I go there sometimes if a painting is doing what I want it to. It's a wonderful place to be...in the zone. Time is irrelevant. I'm not hungry, thirsty or even aware of my surroundings. It's just me and the paint.

Watch the video...enjoy...and may you find the "zone" some time in your life too!

Nancy, celebrating artists today!

more success....

"Good morning...gooooooooooood moorning, I laughed the whole night through...good morning, GOOD MORNING to you!" Love that song. It's from a Gene Kelly movie with Debbie Reynolds and Dennis O Conner in it, a silly 50's musical. I sing it sometimes on the way down to the barn to do chores in the morning. I figure there's no one out here to see or hear me except the horses, dogs and cats. They don't seem offended by it, so it must be OK...right?

I was talking about success. It's a loaded word, success. Everyone wants it and there's no one definition for it either. Most folks do say "Oh she's very successful. Look at the house she has!" or something along that line.

Truth is, although having money is a very nice thing, I'm not sure that it brings success, or at least it's not my idea of success. Most of the people I know who have money haven't been very happy. They're so stressed out while they try to accumulate money so they can have the bigger house and the nicer car and the expensive trappings that go along with that kind of life style, that they've lost their way. They're not happy. And if you aren't happy, are you successful?

I used to do allot of my work for people who are very well off financially. I'd go in to do my mural or design work just about the time they were leaving for work. There was a very interesting transition that went on in those neighborhoods. The owners would leave, driving off down the street with their tired kids in the back seat, all of them wolfing down those cereal bars and drinking coffee for the adults or juice packs for the kids, squabbling among themselves. And about 15 minutes later, in would come all of the maintenance crews to clean houses, mow lawns, repair or paint houses, do landscaping and so on. I guess you could say I was in that category since I did most of my work when the owners weren't home too.

Later, at the end of the day, the maintenance crews would leave and the owners would come trickling home in the same condition. The kids were in the back of the car, eating Mac D hamburgers and french fries, whining about whatever activity had been planned for them that evening because the most successful (there's that word again) students were the ones with lots of outside, extra curricular things going on. They'd come slamming through the doors, stop long enough to ohh and ahh over what I had done, then go on with whatever argument they'd been having. I usually took off about then because I wasn't comfortable being there while all of this personal family stuff was going on.

But if you asked people if they were successful, most of them would have said "Heck, yes! look at all that I have!" My question was always (to myself, or course) "Well, if you're so successful, why aren't you happier about it? Why all the gloom and doom and trauma-drama?"

Someone who is one of the centers of my life told me that he'd like to see me be successful outside the house. I think I already am. I start every single day so excited to get out the door and start my chores that I end up laughing at myself on the way to the barn! The place that I live in is beautiful, even in the most inclement weather. I don't think I've had one day EVER while we've been here when I didn't stop at some point and say "WOW! Look at that!".

I have friends who call or email every day, wanting to know what's going on in my life. I hear from all of the people I love nearly everyday too (just gotta love the Internet for that one!). I have enough food to eat, very good food at that! I have a place to sleep that's safe and warm. The bills are paid...usually. I'm writing, painting, reading, learning, growing (sometimes a bit too much across my backside, but that's another story!) and changing. I call that success.

It's the Nancy-ized edition of the Websters New World dictionary version of the word SUCCESS. Best part is that I can be my own Wikepedia. I can change the definition as often as I want to.

Folks, it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings! I'm just getting started with the idea of what SUCCESS is. Stand back...I'M COMING THROUGH!

Nancy, just another cowgirl with her hat on and her head back, laughing!

SUCCESS at any price....

Success. It's an interesting word, isn't it? If you ask people what their definition of success is, you get a different answer nearly every single time.

I went to a party this past weekend, at a friend's house. Since we've never been to one of her pot lucks, there were lots of new people to meet. And, being a bit gregarious, I had fun talking... and talking. It's easy to carry on a conversation when everything you have to say is new, and everything they have to respond with is just as fresh. Before I went, I decided to carry out a little experiment. I was going to ask, in the course of each conversation with all of these potential acquaintances, what their definition was of the word SUCCESS.

Now, I'm pretty good at talking. I love a good story and love to tell one even more. It isn't usually hard for me to find a common thread and keep it going all night long. And the results are always fascinating. So, I asked my question, slipping it into the conversation between horses and politics.

"Can I ask you something? What's your definition of success? How do you define it?" There were a few people who were surprised by my experimental question, but most were more than happy to talk about it.

Some felt that success was the number of academic achievements they had and the career that came from those degrees (We do live in a town with two universities and only 30 or 40 minutes from several other universities and colleges, so I would have been surprised if this one didn't show up during the evening's festivities.). Other's said that the home they had paid off or the car they were driving was a symbol of success for them.

" I have three wide, flat screen TV's that are all 48 inches and two are high definition." That was an unexpected one...and very funny to me. We don't even have cable at our place. If you can't tell, it was a guy talking.

Another said " I have four horses and I started my two year old colt myself this year."

One guy, someone who had dealt with severe depression the past two years and had been reduced to living in his car as a result, was just happy to be working again as a carpenter. He's also a cowboy who now has two horses and a dog. His story was the most profound and, I think, told to me in confidence. I don't think I'll write the details here. But he's genuinely happy. And he's the one who stays with me all these days later. He was the only one who talked about happiness.

When you look up the definition of SUCCESS in the New Webster's dictionary, it says : n. (I'll skip the latin roots here) 1. orig., result, outcome 2. a) a favorable or satisfactory outcome or result b) something having an outcome 3. The gaining of wealth, fame, rank, etc. 4. a successful person

Doesn't really say much, does it? Maybe that's why we all have our own definition. Me? I think I go with the formerly homeless cowboy. I go with happiness. But I choose that on a smaller day to day scale.

I call it a successful day when I find the shoe Lucky threw, against all odds, out in the pasture. The sun was going down and it was hard to see out there, but it was time well spent because my husband...my best friend...was out there with me. And so was my ageing dog, Gypsy. We walked along the edge of our pond, looking for the missing shoe. I knew it was probably going to be out there. The mud is gooey and always sucks my boots off if I go wading. Makes sense that it would probably be where a 1000 pound horse might loose his shoes too.

We had our adventure together, laughing and talking. I went out into the pond to check one of the hoof prints, thinking there was something sticking up out of the bottom. It was the edge of a turtle's shell. In my haste to withdraw, I lost my boots in the pond. But my finger was intact (it was a snapping turtle) and we were both laughing. Not a bad trade, all things considered.

We kept looking, talking about the news of the day while our eyes were down. Gypsy snuffled along with me, looking for potential dead stuff to roll in. And since my feet were now squishy and the sun was going down, it seemed like a good time to call it quits. (My hope is that pond mud is like any other mud pack; good for your skin. If so, then my feet should be gorgeous tomorrow!)

On the way back to the paddock, there it was! Lucky's shoe, gleaming in the grass, slightly bent and with 5 of the 6 nails still in the shoe. I'd found it! It was kind of like winning a lottery or something.

I'm cutting this one short. Ethan brought his Mom and Dad for a visit (next door neighbors). They're the kind of folks who live with everyday success too. But more on that later.