2014. One of the hardest years of my life. One where traumatic events seemed to knock me down one after the other, barely giving me a chance to get up before the next one hit.

So there I was, lying in a hospital bed, with five crushed ribs and a partially collapsed lung, bewildered by the fact that my horrific riding accident had happened mere weeks after bringing my preemie son home from a month spent in neonatal intensive care.

Laid on top of the extreme pain I was in just from breathing was my fury. I was furious that this year was continuing to ask so much of me. Trial after trial after trial, and it was only July! This year was cursed and I just wanted it to be over.

I just want this year to be over! I said to one of my visitors. I didn’t know her very well. She was an acquaintance from the barn I rode at. I’ve forgotten her name now, but I’ll never forget her response:

Don’t wish your life away.

At the time I felt slightly offended. Her words seemed to disregard the very real pain I was in and the very real desire for the onslaught of difficulties to end and the return to some semblance of normalcy to begin.

Yet those words have stayed with me. Their wisdom deepening as each year, whether difficult or easy, or a more realistic blend of both, takes me closer to the end of all years.

It doesn’t mean that we have to like our struggles and challenges. Of course we would never choose to be in those difficult situations. Those times of utter despair or hopelessness. Those moments of confusion and chaos.

But it does mean, that whether your suffering comes from wishing you weren’t where you are, or wishing you were where you are not, either way, it’s wishing away this moment, and this moment is your life.

There is no such thing as arriving. Whether your arrival is the end of something you don’t want, or the beginning of something you’ve been yearning for: the dream house built; the lake front cabin bought; the promotion received; the big goal achieved.

You’ll never get there, because you can only ever be here. And good or bad, here is exactly where you’re meant to be.

Trusting this truth and believing that we are actually on the right path, trusting that our life is unfolding perfectly (not to be confused with pleasurably), is the work of the warrior; it is not easy.

To sit in patience and trust while we walk through the fire of what we don’t want or walk in circles as we search for the treasure that we do want, is certainly at odds with our restless minds and our human hunger for more.

With practice though, it is possible to cultivate that patience. The patience required to flow with the unfolding of your life, as it unfolds from this moment into the next moment into the next.

Do not turn your back on your own unfolding by wishing it away.

Let go of attachment you’ve been holding about getting somewhere.

You have already arrived.

This meditation – and message from the horses infused within this meditation – is designed to help you cultivate that patience and trust required to flow with your life, as it is, instead of fighting against what it is not.

The energy of the three horses grazing, taking bite by bite, moving step by step, is embedded in this meditation as they invite you to loosen the grip on getting there and to step boldly to the beat of being exactly where you are.

I’d love to know what unfolds for you after practicing patience with the help of this meditation. Please share with me in the comments!

much love,
Carolyn