Putting Life in Perspective First Thing in the Morning

I went out to feed this morning and my gosh it was cold (and even though I've lived in No. Nevada for 15 years now, I'm born and raised in So. CA and had never been a fan of the cold weather and/or snow and still get pissy when it does get very cold even though I can't control that! Drats!). About 12 degrees at 7:30 am and of course, all of the water troughs iced over. I had just busted up and shoveled ice out of the troughs last night around 10:00, but when the temps drop, the ice just forms again over-night. So I get to feeding and then hear a noise and look over to see Thor, my 10 year old Mustang, pawing vigorously in one of the big troughs in the herd-of-12-horses pen. You see, Thor fancies himself the "police horse" (he's pictured standing on the fence in my blogs first post) and it has been his job since he was a weanling (probably before that now that I think about it) as the watcher and keeper of all of the other horses he's in with. If anything is going on, Thor's there to make sure it's "O.K." to be doing that, and if it's not, he'll let the offender know how he feels about what they're doing. So Thor is over there clearing and breaking ice in the troughs with his hoof so that all of the other horses, many of which are yearlings and 2-year-olds who don't know that trick, will have water to drink with their breakfast! What a guy! :-)
In the meantime, my Lucy-dog (named Lucy because she's a red-head and is now Lucille Bell instead of Lucille Ball! :-)), a German Shorthair Pointer that I rescued last year from imminent euthanasia at the local animal control, once again scales the covered 6' fence of her kennel (goes over the fence soundless and light-as-a-feather even though she's not a very tall dog at all, just athletic and graceful) by going through the orange plastic fencing over the top of the pen, and proceeds to gallop around the property, giving my Mustang mare Scarlett's corral mate Mystic a great excuse to act like a loon (not that he needs an excuse most of the time!) and this sets off a chain reaction to the youngsters (and even some of the oldster's) up top to frolic around, bucking, rearing and yelling until they see me coming with the truck to feed, when they then gallop over to the feeders.

It's great to be alive and just stand and watch my horses playing because just when I feel myself beginning to stress to the max about all I have to get done today (have to drive 60 miles one-way in 2 different directions today) watching my "kids" having fun, enjoying life and just being present in the moment calms me down and makes me realize that I'll get done what I can and the rest will just have to wait until I get to it. I've had generalized anxiety disorder and ocd (that manifests as checking gates and doors and such to make sure they are closed so animals don't get loose) for many years (since I was a kid basically), but I am thoroughly convinced that although having 50 furry and feathered "kids" to take care of does cause more worry and anxiety in my life then I'd otherwise probably have, without these individuals in my life, I'd be a total and complete basket-case with no purpose on this planet. Having my "kids" allows me to focus my energies toward the positives of interaction with them instead of dwelling on other things. My kids take one-day-at-a-time and when they are out there moseying around, hanging out, playing rough, or even out-right fighting about something, their lives are true and honest and it helps me to live the same way, calm down and know that life is too short to spend so much time worrying about things that may or may not ever happen.

What a great start to a great day! :-)