We shall be released in unexpected ways

When I was a young girl I took English horseback riding lessons at Stanford Riding Academy.  My mother was a natural born horsewoman and wanted her three daughters to have the wonderful experience she had with horses as a young woman in her 20's, but none of us inherited her gift with horses.  One of the many horses I rode was named Beau. Beau was very much like the horse in the YoutTube video in that he had a mind of his own.  Beau ran away with me on several occasions and once stopped abruptly, and I flew over his head and landed on my feet on the ground in front of him.  Shaking in my boots, I climbed back up on Beau.  I clearly remember my tears and frustration.  I wanted so much to be good at riding horses like my mother, but I simply didn't have what it took.

It's been a long time since I laughed in the way I did watching this video and the one on my previous post with the Tyrannosaurus Rex making a snow angels and wandering off into a snowy landscape. Something is shifting inside me, with the arrival of both tears and laughter.

I would not have found the horse that made me laugh if I hadn't searched for, found, and listened to the video below.  For some reason, the horse video in the sidebar caught my attention.  Who knows why.

The return of laughter

Friends at a flea market in Bellingham. Our laughter is sacred and helps us survive and thrive.

The true end of a war is the rebirth of life;
the right to die peacefully in your own bed.
The true end of war is the end of fear;
the true end of war is the return of laughter.

-- Alfred Molano

(Photo by anonymous photographer, posted with permission from Kathy)

THINGS HAVE CHANGED / DOUBLE TAKE / HOLY LAUGHTER

Solitary Walker's recent posts about Bob Dylan prompted me to post this ad that I came across when I picked up an AARP magazine in March or April of 2004, a time when I was seriously in need of levity. One needs to be familiar with Bob Dylan's song, "Things Have Changed," from 1999 to fully appreciate why I laughed out loud in amazement at the incongruity.

That song begins with the words:

"A worried man with a worried mind / No one in front of me and nothing behind"

and contains the bridge:

"Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet / Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street"

When I first heard that song on my way to work one day in 1999, I thought I was hearing someone doing a clumsy parody of Bob Dylan, and I felt annoyed. Soon after that, one of my younger co-workers asked if I had heard the new Bob Dylan song on the radio. Double take.

Things Have Changed video posted on YouTube

I especially like the number of times he literally "looks back" and that he enjoys every sandwich. I dreamed once that Bob Dylan and Woody Allen were the same person.