My morning routi
ne begins with offering hay to Echoe and Tango, I clean up their paddocks, place hay and water in their daytime paddock, hand them breakfast and walk with them to their daytime paddock. Echoe brings himself to the paddock, Tango and I walk together. It’s beautiful to watch Echoe walk freely with no halter, no leadrope. Its a trust-thing that he has taught me. He has no reason to run! He has no reason to behave ‘badly’. We have an understanding that creates the trust. I have learned to breathe around him, relax and resist the temptation to control him. I love to watch him walk around in the woods behind the house, chewing at the wood, eating leaves, scratching on fallen branches. Who am I to control that which comes so naturally to him. He is also a reflection of the free spirit that I am, and he continues to reflect for me so I remain aligned to who I am and to the work I am here to do.
During the morning routine, at some point, when my mind becomes clear of thoughts, I receive a profound message from Echoe. These messages are received as 4-5 words which usually resonate very deeply and I either sit with the message, or ask him more questions around it. This has been happening for almost 2 years now and I am humbled by his ability to know exactly what to say to shift my energy, perspective and stuck thoughts into a moment of feeling the flow again and having resolution. I will post these words of wisdom on Nikoe Natural Therapies Facebook page and have been blessed to find that other people also resonate with his words that day.
Yesterday his words to me were: REPLACE EXPECTATION WITH WONDERMENT
I pondered this for a little while, thanked him, as I always do and began to feel what this meant, what wisdom was he bringing to me today. Two days earlier I had asked him “What is Existence?” (see post). It was about simplifying life and to just be.
So, how did this possibly relate to these new words of wisdom? I felt that EXPECTATION was an energy that took me into the future, because that is where an expectation is manifested. I understood WONDERMENT to be the innocent fun of a child, puppy, foal as they experience each particle of life for the very first time. This I felt was being in the moment, being present. As I sat with these feelings I realized that as a follow on from my previous question to him, he validated the desire for me to remain present, to not live in the expectation of the future, which as we all know is apt to change at any given moment!
In many teachings we are asked to remain present, to be in the moment, but as a human with a busy mind, and life, how do we achieve such a thing. We have to plan, create, plan, do, plan, oops, plan again! I have found that watching my own animals has created space to be present. Watching them just be in the moment. If my dog, Dasher, is eating, that is all that is on his mind, if he is chasing a scent, or a ball, that’s it – nothing else! No shopping list, appointments, laundry! So, I watch him, and I allow myself to just be in the moment, being with his every move, he has taught me so much. I watch Echoe and Tango as they graze, drink water, move from one hay pile to the next, and choose to be with them in each moment. The more I have practiced being with my animals, the easier it becomes to switch off for a while and JUST BE.
I feel w
e often get so caught up in life we forget the WONDERMENT of it all. We pass by the hawk in the sky, the butterfly perched on a leaf, the shapes that the clouds make in the sky, the beautiful colors around the moon, the view over the ocean, or lake that we see every day. We quickly forget that once upon a time these experiences WOW’d us, amazed us, created a desire to share with others – HEY LOOK AT THAT! I so enjoy the emails we receive filled with photographs of nature and animals living so harmoniously. This is the wonderment that Echoe is asking for us to reconnect with. This is the place from which we can live a full life, filled with creativity, excitement and purpose.
Echoe invites you to spend a few minutes each day being in wonderment and releasing expectation. He asks that you trust in the process you are in and know that all is in divine order – always!