Dances with Horses: Sloughing Away the Dross

The Naming

Not just anyone can name you. Often times our first name is given by our parents. It seems only right that our mother and father who have brought us into the world should have the first right to place their seal and connect their authority through the use of name. Often the second people to rename us are the peers within our group. There is often a hint of teasing and jostling for position connected to these renamings within our American youth culture. In many native cultures renaming is connected to a coming of age ceremony, through which one learns or acknowledges their personal role within the society. It is usually connected to their personal giftings by the Great Spirit or the recognized deity within that culture. In the Bible there are stories of renaming that are usually connected to a change of situation, personality or character. When women marry often there is a change in name associated with the change in position in life.

My renaming was attempted by many. There were the kids who tried to tack their labels on me. Some stuck with pricks sharp enough to motivate change. This led to a struggle that wounded the fragile sense of image that I clung to, until the day the Lord began my renaming. I say, began because my renaming was a process that continues on today. First He un-named me. He tore away at all the labels and mis-conceptions that the enemy of our souls had tried, through various means, to adhere to my soul, destroying who God had created me to be. As He stripped back the layers of lies, He began to expose the truth, who I was in Him.

There were a few mentors that the Lord has brought into my life, to speak truth into my soul. This truth speaking drove back the lies and began to break through the hard exterior I had wrapped around my soul, protecting it from the barbs. Strange, how the self-protective methods we use, often keep us from what we need or really desire. One such mentor was Curtis Wright. One day up in Yosemite, among the grandeur of the tower pines, sequoias and maples, Curtis called me by name. Funny, how you can recognize your name, though you had never been called out by it before. From that day on, I have aspired to live up to that name. It is how this blog got its name, Dances with Horses.

Yet, ultimately my most important name is simple. It is found in a possessive pronoun. It would be unidentifiable admist the others who could claim it. Yet, when He calls me by this name all else fads away. Nothing else matters when I truly allow the truth of who I am to settle in to the crevices of my heart. Who am I? Simply, "His."

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Sloughing Away the Dross

Will the real me please stand up.

It is necessary that our first step in our journey of becoming effective riders, trainers and even communicators with each other is to let go of all that is not really you. We must start with letting go of the things that hide our true self. We must let go of ego and what props up our sense of image. We must peel back the layers that prevent us from seeing the truth, feeling the truth, hearing the truth and leave only what is real.

The first difficulty with this is that we rarely are true perceivers of what is. Most of the persona we project is a combination of who we are, with who we want others to see us as, or perhaps, even a reflection of what we were told we are by someone in our story.

It is easy to be living out someone else's story rather than living authentically. It is hard to strip away the excess and get to the root because we rarely know what is real. The dance of dishonesty among other humans is often so intricate that we hold up pictures of others and of ourselves that help to perpetuate the myths. What are some of these myths?

I am glad you asked.

The myth of self sufficiency.

The myth of able-ness.

The myth of being ok.

The myth of having it together.

The myth of the shoulds.

The myth of a timetable for benchmarks in life.

The myth of busyness equalling productivity and success.

Horses can often be one of the first honest mirrors people will experience that will not tell them what they want to hear. Instead of holding up the myths they read true. Our ability to hear what they say will determine our ability to move forward in our communication with them or not.

Too often in response to this true mirror we will discipline them.

The horse will take the wrong lead, saying, "you are on the outside seatbone", and we will respond with "bad horse." The horse will run into the canter transition and say "your aids lack definite intent." We will respond with, "bad horse." This interaction can be a vicious cycle of the horse being honest and us calling them liars. Often the horse will either shut down emotionally and physically or become very frustrated with the rider leading to explosions.

So how can you learn to hear what the horse is trying to say to you?

Start with believing their story. This often times starts with embracing humility and laying aside ego. The quickest journey to knowledge is through admitting your lack. We must be willing to embrace the picture they reflect to us as true and accurate, even if it re-makes what we would like to be true. We may not like what they are saying but they are speaking from the heart.

There is another even more perfectly honest mirror. It is the Word of God. It too will cut.

But it cuts to heal.