lotus, horses, and keys
“Seriously?” Urania scowled across the table at Thalia. “A lotus, horses, and keys? C’mon! What are we supposed to do with that?”
“Don’t scowl at the messenger, Nia. It’s Typist who asked me to pull these images together,” Tal replied.
Calliope folded her hands and rested them on the table. She took a deep breath. “If Kevin Bacon has only six degrees of separation from anyone involved in the Hollywood film industry, surely we can link three random images provided courtesy of our fearless leader.”
The words fearless and leader together made Thalia laugh so richly that tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I’m serious as a playful elf at the North Pole in the month of December,” said Calliope. “Lighten up and we can get the message out.”
Thalia and Nia looked at Cal… and waited.
“So, the lotus means there is beauty in everything. The flower sprouts from muck,” said Cal.
“And the video about the horse trainer shows that to find beauty, there are often wounds that need healing?” asked Thalia.
“The keys… What opens one door might not fit another?” asked Nia.
“See!” Calliope clapped her hands. “Serious playfulness… works.”
If you have 13 minutes, Herd of Two is an invitation into a different way of seeing and being. I revisit the video often to remember that hope and possibility live inside the muck.
“Until the lesson is learned, it will be repeated.” In my younger, “I got this!” days, a friend invited me to go horseback riding. When we reached the farm, the owner did a quick head count and pronounced that I could not ride with the others. She noted that the remaining horse didn’t do well with male riders. As the other three riders were all women I’m not sure why one of them could not have ridden this horse. Assuring the owner I would be okay, we mounted up and first navigated a narrow trail to a large open field. Once there, my horse tried repeatedly to brush me off by swiping me against large trees. When that failed, she proceeded to buck me off. Then danced merrily away. In short, what makes a knucklehead (me) with very limited riding skills decide I could prevail? Ego. So watching the woman, and listening to her comments on the horses, was a good reminder that willpower may not be the best solution for controlling a horse. Or many other situations…