August 27 2022
How to survive Scary Things
I was riding Sam up to Front Field North to scope out our cover crop of sunflowers and something in the Veg Field caught his attention. His head lifted and his ears pricked up. He started shuffling around see the object of his fear (or perhaps more appropriately his attention) from multiple angles. I didn’t see anything at all, and he eventually settled and we walked up the lane without further incident.
Jack was walking through the barn and he caught a glimpse of the new hitching post and he froze. He snorted and we walked up to the giant scary thing. Like Sam, he also began to move around, trying to see this supposed monster with each eye, from multiple angles, to gain a full picture of what was in front of him. Eventually we moved on and walked back into the barn and continued with our day.
Like the horses, I also had a fairly intimidating encounter this week. I won’t elaborate more than that because the object, or experience, isn’t actually the point. After the fact, as we all do, I replayed the incident and tried to make sense of it. I tried to look at it from every angle. Then I got frustrated with myself that I couldn’t mentally move on, that I couldn’t compartmentalize and just “get over it”. But I think we’re missing a huge opportunity to grow when we don’t allow ourselves (or each other) the time to fully understand the object of our concern. Sometimes what we thought was this giant scary thing is actually a simple hitching post-something new but completely benign, sometimes it was never there at all, and other times we’ve got good reason to be a little shaken. It’s part of the innate instinct to survive that is hardwired in every species. I think most of the time I push myself too quickly to shake it off, and I don’t know if it’s ever done me much good. I don’t know if any of you have been facing anything frightening lately, and for your sake I hope not. But next time you do, be easy on yourself. Take some time. Look at it from every angle, take a step back, and then move forward with focus and intention, freed from the lingering residue of fear.