April 26, 2009
A Prophet's Prayer
April 23, 2009
Goal #32
Over the years I'm sure I've exasperated my poor parents into letting me own a horse. I was 6 years old when it all started. I'm 22 now. Poor parents. I have bugged them perpetually for 16 years now!
9yrs old
Well I still don't own a horse. Bummer I know. But I had a great experience last semester that came close to my goal.
I had to beg the teacher to allow me into his Advanced Animal Behavior class. I'm not an Animal Science major, I hadn't taken the pre-reqs, and he only accepts 10-12 students a semester. He didn't even know if I could ride. But somehow he let me in. And I will always be SO grateful!
Although its an Animal Behavior class, really it was a horsemanship class. We learn to work with horses. But it gets cooler than that! We learn equine psychology and natural horsemanship: learning to think like a horse and how to develop a relationship of trust. Oh man, after all my years of riding and training no one had ever taught me anything like that.
My semester project: Milo.
Each student was assigned to a horse- a difficult horse- to work with the whole semester. I got Milo. We spent at least 10-12 hours a week outside of class together. It took a lot of time, energy, creative problem solving, and hard work. Sometimes with little success. But by the end of the semester I realized Milo and I had come a LONG way. My goal was to build his confidence, and it wasn't until the end of the semester that I realize he had built mine too..
.
I wish I could explain in one post everything I learned this semester. Believe it or not, there are some POWERFUL doctrine and principles that I observed and learned through this experience. But I can't. It would take way to long, and my words probably wouldn't do it justice.
One thing I did learn, was the power horses have to heal. There is something truly incredible that takes place when we realize our duty to God's creations around us. Adam was given dominion over all the living creatures. Today we have that same responsibility to care for those beings, and to allow them the same agency that we have been so blessed with. My experience with Milo taught me to be more Christlike. I tried to develop the same relationship with Milo that Christ would have had with him. And in turn, I think it was a tender mercy for Milo to help me in my own healing process.
Hopefully my next post about Goal #32 is that I will finally own one of my own! I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe I should just marry a cowboy.
April 13, 2009
April 8, 2009
High Anxiety
Well its not here- here. It's in PROVO and I'm in REXBURG!
MY CALL!
So I just wanted to share that I have a major research paper that has to be turned in soon and all I can think about it getting my call, and how on earth I'm going to wait that long.
Pray for me... no... just for my paper. It's the one suffering from all this.