Geometry, Shadows and the Horse who visited today...

Busy day today, at midday taking Mom for her checkup (all is good :) and then shopping. We selected lots of the season's luscious fruits and veggies at the local produce market and I parked the Beetle very close to the front door at home to make unloading easier and to help keep Mom out of this dreadful heat (109 today) as it takes her awhile to make it in from the usual parking spot.

All those purchases translated to quite a reworking of storage in the refrigerator and fruit baskets. The counter looks like a farm stand. This kind of shopping almost always evolves into cleaning drawers and shelves, beginning prep work, etc., so by late late afternoon, I was ready for a quick break before beginning dinner preparations.

With an icy cold pineapple coconut spritzer, a fan at full blast and planning to check e-mail and facebook I logged onto the laptop in the living room and mindlessly put on the TV to hear what the headlines might be. This isn't a usual place for me at this time of day but scrolling through my e-mails, I heard something of interest on TV and looked up ....

Lo and behold, there "she" was, a shadow horse prancing on the open door of the armoire that holds the TV. "She" is a silly wooden child's carousel statue that I picked up a garage sale almost 2 decades ago, just after I got my mare, Sugee. "She" was bare wood and I decided to paint her with the browns, blacks and whites of Sugee's bay roan Appaloosa snowflake varnish coloring. And, of course, her little white left front "sugar foot" which is the basis for her name, Sugee -- a little girl owned her when she was very young and could not say "Sugar Foot", so it was Sugee and everyone has always called her that since.

So with the little statue, if "she" was going to live in the house and look like Sugee, well, "she" needed a mane and tail, so I trimmed some of Sugee's and made her a standup mane to match Sug's wild punk rocker look. And, back then, I loved riding bareback all around the desert in a halter, so I put just a silken rope halter on her. "She" is small, only about a foot tall but has always just been hanging around the house, here and there, a bit whimsical or a bit tucked away and, after all these years, "she" kind of blends into the background on the windowsill.

I don't ride any more and Sugee is 30 now, retired, blind yet still enjoying her golden years. But it was a sweet feeling this late afternoon to see that beautiful outline there right in front of me, like a gift of remembrance of good times, in a place and time I never expected.

How does the geometry fit in? Well, I think the sun does not normally hit this armoire door. As I said, I'm not usually looking at this door at this time of day at this time of the year, so I'm not 100% sure about that. I'm thinking the reason "she" showed up today as a dancing shadow to remind me of lovely things is because of the geometry of sunlight specific to today. I believe it struck the reflective windows on my Beetle parked at an angle "just so" not far from the living room window. And then it beamed back into the north window and passed over her to cast the lovely shadow for me onto a door standing "just so" ..... I'm going to check tomorrow and see if "she" shows up after the Beetle is moved back to its place. But I bet "she" won't and that today was just a special little message of good memories.... "just because". I like when things like this happen, those smiles that are granted like little random blessings from the universe. They sure make life fun.

The details . . .

I find myself relishing the details of my horses, all the little things that make them unique individuals. Those little parts that some might not even see. I guess it's sort of like looking at the pads on the paws of a very young puppy in wonderment, staring at the beauty with which they were designed. So many little details on such big animals and they have been with me for so many years, it's not like I've never seen them. It's just been the recent light, the weather, my mood that makes me really look. . .

I love my sweet old mare. She never fails to make me smile and to warm my heart, so affectionate, so willing to be with me. She came to me at age 11, and she was definitely not the horse I expected or dreamed of but she was right - she chose me and it was good, very good.

The old gelding too, he is pretty irresistible with his beauty, his quick connection to humans and that little devilish gleam in his eye that seems to say he'll be getting into some kind of trouble any second. And he does, but you can't help but always forgive him. He arrived at age 4, a true wild child, breathtaking in more ways than one.

She's 30, a very uniquely beautiful, slim, hard keeper and probably 90% blind now. He's 25, a beautiful chunk of more classic looks and a rebel without a cause for at least 5 minutes of every hour. Different as night and day but the best of buddies, she is mine and he is husband's but they are family really... after all these years, how could they be anything but?

I thought I'd share them with you, in case you don't have any of your own to enjoy, to relish the little things like manes and noses and tails and feet. She is Sugee, short for Sugarfoot. He is Hopscotch and lives up to the name. They have taught me so many lessons over the years. I can't imagine having missed out on that. Someone wise once said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man." I could not agree more.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

tail light....

..... in motion here. Swoosh! And Swish! The light was so pretty on this softly curving tail in mid-stride ..... but looking at this now, it reminds me to think about: being stuck behind tail lights, what kind of tail lights I am leaving behind for others, what type of tail lights have I been following, forgetting about tail lights and concentrating on headlights, tail lights in motion and tail lights standing still. So many facets to what at first glance seems to be such a simple and ordinary thing, tail lights. What do they make you think of?

on a frosty Tucson morning....

.... a rider warms up her horse for their dressage test. We don't typically see quarter blankets and parkas here in the desert but it's been very cold for much of this winter. It's a novelty in a way, for me, a throwback to growing up back East. Regardless of chattering teeth, it was fun watching all that steamy breath of athletes exercising against a beautiful backdrop such as this sunrise.

reaching...

...forward, as far as you can, to improve, excel or meet a goal. What keeps us reaching? What stops us from reaching? What do you do to reach?

Moving on....

moving ahead, time marches on, pushing on, nothing stays static as today becomes the past once tomorrow arrives...

Today (ok, yesterday really, I'm a night owl!) was my birthday and isn't it funny how one day will make you think about life? Moving on, through the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years, decades. Amazing how it moves so fast at times. I'm trying to catch all the good spots along the way, grabbing the people, places, things that speak to me most to savor them as time keeps rolling on. I suppose it's the best any of us can and should do in this life - - move ahead and endeavor to enjoy the good things that undoubtedly will pop up during the trip.

Here's to straight flowing beautiful lines with fabulous side benefits....