If you’ve been reading here a while, you already know that horse whispering (it’s actually called equus coaching but that doesn’t adequately convey the poetic loveliness of what happens) is one of my most favorite things in the world.

That’s why I make all my year-long EFBA clients go with me, because it’s crazy potent magic and it’s literally impossible to explain why or what you exactly do or any of it. You just have to go.

Each time I’m in the round pen with a horse, I learn something new about how I’m showing up in the world. For a long time, what I mostly learned was that I was TERRIBLE at setting boundaries and was basically an open invitation for crap, confusion, bullying, and aggressively anxious people.

(Also apparently I kept telling horses to come put their heads down my shirt, so it was unbelievably gratifying the first time I was able to stop a big gorgeous equine lover from getting to second base.)

The last couple of times I’ve gone horse whispering, what I’ve learned has been about persistence.

I personally HATE persistence.

I want to flick my magic wand and have nurseries clean themselves up spit spot. I want to chant ommmm and have all my issues dissolve in one peaceful weekend. I want to send the horse a signal and have it just GO.

?I am very much into instant gratification and effortless creation.

However, they are just not that into me.

Much to my chagrin, I keep learning that the things I want most in life are more of a slow build. Less clicking my heels; more like quilting. I really love quilts, but I really hate making 90 bazillion tiny tiny stitches. And tying knots. And measuring. And pinning. Ok so all of it. I think I’d rather order a t-shirt blanket where you can just send off a few choice items and they do all the hard work for you!

?But the beauty of doing the horse work is that you see the patterns in your life mirrored in these gorgeous majestic creatures, and watching my patterns play out, I realized something.

There are lots of times where I give up too soon because I think something isn’t working.

When in fact, it is working– or it’s starting to work– or it could work if I keep at it– I just haven’t hit the tipping point yet.

?Our culture celebrates the tipping point. We like the overnight success and the rags to riches and the dramatic turnarounds. Of course we do! They fit in SO WELL between those hilarious Quilted Northern commercials. But the whole point of a tipping point is that it’s not instant at all. It’s an invisible coagulating of myriad factors that builds and builds and builds until then and ONLY THEN can it spill out in a transformation.

This is a season of slow building for me, but it’s also been fun recently to watch a few of my own projects reach a tipping point. The new website I’ve dreamed about for months is coming soon. (I can’t WAIT to to show it to you!) My home is finally complete from the move and humming along. My hair and I have finally found our sweet spot. But in the meantime, I’m working on all sorts of other things behind the scenes that will stay invisible for quite a while yet. I’m investing time, money, and faith in things that might turn out to be a total bust. One day it might seem like they burst out in immediate glory, but the truth is I’m nurturing them one tiny nearly invisible stitch at a time.

I have to keep choosing to stay the course and declare my direction in a million ways that no one will ever see. This takes courage, my friends, and persistence.

So keep having faith. Keep taking those tiny little stitches. I’m over here taking mine too.

And as long as we’re going to be doing all that work, we might as well make our creations (lives, quilts, tables, and relationships) gorgeous.

much love,
Anna