During my recent Aikido/Horsemanship with Mark Rashid, at one point he said, “Do one thing instead of 20.”  Returning home to ride on my own, I could feel myself starting to do 20 things with Amadeo, getting too busy with the reins, leg, mind.  I stopped.  I let the reins all the way out and we just stood there.  The one thing I focused on was feeling the inside of me connecting to the inside of him.  When he tried lowering his head, i said “good” and after a few moments, he relaxed all the way down.  When I picked up the reins again, the one thing was maintaining a feeling of internal softness in the contact.  And breathing.  We did that several times, with some walking in between.  I could feel him settling, looking around, calming, his whole body seeming to change texture.  Mine too.  When we started to trot, I needed to firm up a little, because for Deo, too much softness feels like no direction or structure, which is ineffective.  But the firming up has to have the softness all the way through it.

My daughter Bimala is getting very good at doing one thing.  Being with a baby is a lot like being with a horse.  Both require feel, timing, blending, balance and breath.  When we get too busy with Laila, she lets us know right away that we have lost one of those things.  Deo is the same.  The interesting thing is that with both of them, I am finding a deep quality of grounding and stillness.  One breath at a time.  Repeat.  Repeat.