Snowflakes

Today I received quite a wonderful and needed lesson. As most of you well know, today saw the first snow in a couple of weeks here in Athens. As beautiful as it was, I found myself rushing from place to place today, my mind wholly intent on completing the chores on my list. As I walked rapidly, seeing only the next step in front of my shoes, the snow kept getting in my eyes. All morning it was like this, go into class or a store, come out, and there was that darned snow again. I have to admit, by noon today it was really starting to tick me off. That is of course, until I realized that the only reason the snow kept getting in my eyes, and blinding me as I walked, was that I was walking so fast. The minute I slowed down, the snow just settled into sweet downward drifts around my face and onto my hat.

As often as I told myself on the plane back home from Honduras, and as often as I told myself that I would take the lesson of calmness from Montana, I still find myself slipping back into the anxious old habits. Today I feel like God left a sweet little package on my doorstep that said: "You could learn from this." I love little presents.

A Very Vivacious Horse

So, today, I was driving down this back road with my little brother, and as we turned around a corner, I saw off to the side the most beautiful farm. The snow lay on the ground, shimmering as the occasional ray of sun lit upon it. And as I looked, bounding across the field came these four gorgeous horses. I'm sure you can imagine the sight, the horses kicking up snow as they happily raced towards the fence, the snow catching the sunlight as it flew through the air. I looked back for a quick glance and said to my brother, "Look at how pretty that is!" Too involved in his book, he didn't look up. Turning back to the front, I had the shock of my life. One of the horses running at the fence took a flying leap...and cleared the five foot fence, right into my car. Slamming on my breaks, I saw the horse glance off the side of my car and stumble back into the small grass berm near the fence. As I came to a screeching stop, I watch it pause, and then, almost unbelievably, race off to rejoin its friends in a new race. This time, however, it was very dangerously on the wrong side of the fence, where it could be hurt worse by a new car. Pulling off to the side of the road, I found myself quickly besieged by five other cars who had seen me smack the horse, and who actually knew how to wrangle the crazy thing back into the paddock.

I have no idea how the horse got over the fence, but as I looked, what I think was more miraculous was that the horse didn't seem to be hurt at all. My car did not come away so lucky. I had a gigantic dent in my back end. Oh, well, c'est la vie. At least the horse came away okay.

Phewww...