Begin now

This week on the Riding in the Weeds podcast, Tash and I are talking about starting exactly where you are. I love Tash’s example of not slashing the other 3 tires on the car just because you got a flat.

How often do we actually do that, though? We get discouraged because something isn’t like we expect it to be, and then that’s the last time we make any attempts at that, thank you very much.

What if each day we could simply begin where we are?

The horses have taught me this lesson so deeply. How often I’ve come to the barn with an agenda of what I want to work on, based on what we did the last time we worked. And how often my horse tells me that agenda isn’t going to fly today.

Maybe it’s because the work we did yesterday was a lot, and he needs to take a step back. Maybe it’s because he (or I…) am wearing the cranky pants and not having the greatest day to begin with. It might be because he’s working on changing something in his body and just doesn’t have the same capacity that he had yesterday.

The reason never matters - what matters is that I give him grace, and allow him to be where he is and work to the best of his (our) ability in that moment. What we did yesterday doesn’t really matter all that much in the face of whatever we are experiencing today.

As the saying goes, ride the horse that shows up.

Can we give ourselves that grace? Can we show up and observe where we are, and move from there? What if today’s “steps backwards” aren’t steps backwards, but our body or mind building capacity to handle the changes we attempted to make yesterday? What if we treated ourselves and our pets with kindness when today doesn’t look the same as yesterday?

What if we could say, I trust that you are doing the best you can in this moment, and that looks different than I expected and not make ourselves or our pets wrong for it?

If you want to dive into this conversation with us, come have a listen on the podcast - www.ridingintheweeds.com and on all major podcast platforms.