I promise there’s a pony
You just have to believe.
As much as I hate to say it, I’m grateful for everything I went through this year.
No one, I think, really wants to admit the trials and challenges we face are gifts.
When my daughter was three, dressed head to toe as Tinker Bell, including the blonde wig, even though she was already blonde, we were leaving Disneyland, and she grabbed hold of the gates with all her might, and exclaimed for everyone to hear that she could not leave this place, because she lived there.
I tried to explain to her, that if she lived at Disneyland, eventually, the magic, wonder and awe would fade, and her own journey into the dark night of the soul would still come, in the happiest place on earth, or not. This did not land very well on my spirited three year old.
I think it was a reminder to myself. That life is a journey of highs and lows and we wouldn’t know the difference if we didn’t have the peaks and valleys.
Finding gratitude for the struggles we face is a challenge for sure. This year, I made every effort to find that gratitude, even while I was deep within the muck of it all. I made sure to take at least one moment every day to stand or sit, lol as a big chunk of this year, I spent on my tush, and just say thank you. Because I knew that there was a gift in this experience somewhere.
Someone once told me a funny little story, of a small girl, who awoke on Christmas morning to a living room, filled with horse manure. She squealed with delight and immediately dove into the pile pushing it from side to side. When her parents asked her, how was it possible for her to be so excited about her pile of horse manure, she looked at them, and said if there’s much manure, there’s got to be a pony somewhere.
Here’s to finding our ponies and riding them off into the sunset in delight and gratitude.
Wishing you all a peaceful, abundant and radiantly healthy, 2024.
I invite you to upgrade your subscription for 2024. It’s going to be juicy.