Calling All GENEROUS Spirits

There is an opportunity for the blogging community to come together supporting another blogger who has been brought to her knees. As I write this there is a campaign by Twittermoms (didn't know there was such a thing) to help out in any way.

I read Beth McGrew's Manic Mother blog regularly. This week I read her post with a lump in my throat as she told about the horrific words no mother ever wants to hear "Your son has cancer."
Ezra just turned two years old.

Rather than take up your time reading MY blog, I ask you to go to hers, read the story, see the pictures of Ezra and dig deep into your generous spirit to give whatever you can to help them. Beth has set up a way to receive donations on her blog either thru Paypal or credit cards. Another group put together a fund-raiser with bracelets for Ezra you could buy, proceeds to Beth. I'm leaving this blog up thru next week so everyone who stops by can see it, go to hers and help out. I know when you see Ezra and hear their story you will help - PLEASE - in any way you can!

http://www.manicmother.com/









Thank you all so much!

The Trip to Contentment

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I just got back from a five-day trip up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We "opened" the lake house for the summer (though the furnace is still on), we launched the boat (wearing coats) and went to a flea market, where, at long last, I purchased a set of SHAMWOW's. Fortunately we headed back home before I could try them out cleaning anything.

In years past, once I would get up there to our little house in the woods on the lake, I did NOT want to come back home. It's quiet, peaceful and the view is superb. The eagles swoop down in the bay to catch fish, the deer romp thru the woods and thru our yard, and the loons mesmerizing call fills the pine scented air. I can sit on our porch and look at the lake for hours doing absolutely nothing. Leave all this to come home? Home to traffic and traffic noise, home to suburbia that feels like an expensive ghetto for lack of space, home to routines, day timers, meetings and "busy". I felt chained here. Up north I felt loose and free.

This year not so much. Things have shifted a bit. It's all mental. Nothing is really different except my attitude. And my garden. And my blog.

I planted a vegetable garden for the first time in 15 years - tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and herbs mostly. I couldn't wait to get back home to see if my bunny fence worked and if the plants grew - it did, and the plants grew several inches. Far from any harvest, I'm still gleeful at the prospect and as enthused as a child at the circus over this silly garden.

Up north I have no access to high speed internet at our house. Not yet anyway. I thought surely I could be away for a few days and it would be no big deal. By day three, I had such computer withdrawl I almost packed up. I knew my email would be filled with blogs I subscribe to, I was missing seeing the comments on mine, and making comments on others. I believe there is a scientific, psychological, physical word for this.........addiction?

Whatever. The shift for me is that I always wanted to get away from home and escape up north, feeling I could never be happy here, not totally, because I always wanted to be there. I felt chained here, imprisoned. And the more I thought about it (guess what?) the more strongly I felt it. Not only do I have to smack myself for not enjoying my present moment (wherever the heck I am) but I also have to congratulate myself on making a committment to the garden and blogosphere that have meaning for me - my keys to contentment. Yes I want to go back up north in July (we may have internet there then), but I'll also want to come back home.

So we're driving our 6 hour trip home today and doing our usual excellent road trip past-time, singing along with our favorite CD's and along comes The Eagles. I don't know if you like them, or have really listened to the lyrics, but I think they have profound messages in their songs. Our favorite, which we played several times, is "Already Gone". (I put it on here to pep up your day!)

One line of this song hit me today.

"We live our lives in chains....and we never even know we have the keys"

We have the keys.

Living with Passion and Without Money

Joseph Campbell said, "When you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a track that has been there all the time waiting for you."

All too often, many of us trade in our passion for what seems to be the "sensible" thing to do. Of course you'd like to paint, train dolphins, design furniture - whatever - but there is the mortgage, the car payment, and all things we need income for getting in the way.

I was listening to Wayne Dyer's book "No Limit Life" on my CD player. I'm surprised it's not worn out. I listen to this at least once a year, like my annual dose of Dyer, my attitude vitamin and an inspiring picker-upper. He poses a lot of questions at the end and each one is a gem. I'm going to throw this one out to you - think about it. Somewhere in the thoughts you have, there could be a clue to your passion.

"What would you do if there was no such thing as money?"

Bizarre and liberating isn't it? So what would you do?

(I looked at Amazon for the CD I mentioned and it is not available - so I added a composite CD in the recommended column - he is very inspiring and motivating no matter the topic!)

Stress - Lincoln Logs and Cows After All

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In my stress research, I learned that complete prevention of stress is neither possible nor desirable, because stress is an important stimulus of human growth and creativity, as well as an inevitable part of life. In addition, specific strategies for stress prevention vary widely from person to person, depending on the nature and number of the stressors in an individual's life, and the amount of control he or she has over these factors. In general, however, a combination of attitudinal and behavioral changes works well for most people. The BEST form of prevention appears to be healthy attitudes and behaviors.

That can mean only one thing. Ultimately WE are in charge, we have control, and we don't need medication for stress. Our minds are more powerful that we think they are because replaying stressful events over and over make our bodies react to those thoughts, taxing our internal systems and organs to their limits until something, somewhere breaks down.

I had thought of sharing my biggest, ugliest, most emotional stress "attack" and as I was thinking of the beginning of the story, a lump formed in my throat and I could actually FEEL my heart start pounding. That was enough. I listened to the way I could feel my body responding to THOUGHTS - as if it were happening all over again right here, right now. This event happened in 2003 but my body didn't know that - it "heard" my mind thinking about it, picturing the scenes and it took off reliving the whole darn thing! I will not knowing, willingly think ANY thoughts that will make me stress out, even for a moment. (I make no gaurantees or warranties for the stupid moments I have when stress creeps in the back door!)

So I'm doing my body a favor and I'm not going to go there. Instead I'll tell you some stress busters I've found that work well for me. These are all simple things because I believe in simple. Stress comes when we complicate things - we discard simple because we cannot accept the fact that anything IS simple. (Caution: simple does not imply easy.)

#1 - BE PRESENT. Living in the present moment is hard - often the mind goes back to yesterday, or yesteryear - or is thinking of things in the future. I'm not talking about goal-type thinking, just daydreaming kind of stuff, not really important. Or its worry about the future. I'll give you my favorite quote from Eckhart Tolle "Worry just PRETENDS to be important!" If you watch your thoughts during the day, see if you can keep track of all the past/future thinking that goes on in your head, as opposed to just being in the moment. You will be amazed I'm sure. I have to tie rocks to my thoughts so I don't go floating off into fantasy land. It's a practice - so that's what you do, practice. ( I don't think it possible to graduate to ALWAYS being present every moment without the aid of powerful drugs or a partial lobotomy.)

#2 - EXERCISE - Physical - walking counts! Yoga and Tai Chi are fabulous for both getting a good workout (without sweat) and also relaxing your body. (My husband, who "works out" was rather shocked trying to do yoga with me one day - yes, dear, it IS exercise isn't it? - key operative word - "trying".)

#3 - RELAX - Whether it's 10 minutes doing deep breathing and thinking only of your breath, listening to calm, soothing music, watching a sunset, or the birds at the birdfeeder. This is considered "wasting time" by the Type A's out there - I'm a reformed one myself - but this is NOT a waste of time. It gives the body a break. (Healing happens here in this brief quiet moment, both physically and mentally. Let that engine coast - get off the accelerator!)

#4 - LISTEN TO YOUR BODY - Eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are tired is my motto. Clocks make me nuts so I don't use them to tell me when to eat or sleep. You maybe need one to get you up for work. But go to bed when you are tired - if you don't make it to the 10pm. news, who cares? I gave up wearing a watch too. I'm not a clock watcher yet I'm NEVER late - I pace myself well (plus I don't have little kids anymore).

# 5 - LOVE YOURSELF - Sound weird? If you love yourself, you want only the best for you. The best is NOT to stress out, NOT to worry, NOT to eat junk, NOT to overwork yourself, etc. If this sounds too narcissistic for your liking, then just treat yourself the way you would someone you loved and cared for dearly. Know that you are precious, unique and beautiful just the way you are. (Note I did not say "perfect" cuz we all know there just ain't no such thing, but come on, God did not make JUNK - he left that up to us and we've surely overcreated that!)

# 6 - Last but certainly not least - go visit Jean's blog - she was kind enough to send a link to her articles on stress in the comments the other day - here they are: See The Traits of Stress-Hardy, Resilient People and Optimizing Stress. She is wonderful! Thank you, Jean, for the always enriching content!

Wrapping up my exploration of the word stress, I believe the extent to which stress rules a life and ruins health is controllable and preventable - let's start a Just Say No to Stress club! The word stress has only been in vogue for a portion of my life. The accelerated pace of the last few decades has everyone frantically trying to "keep up" or have it all, do it all, instant gratification, faster computers, bigger this, better that. Life's pace (if not checked) is out of whack, out of balance, overloaded. Yes, we just need to say NO and slow down. This pace is simply not necessary, nor is it something we can handle --- why else is there an American Institute of Stress and rampant stress-oriented disease?

I think my dad's engineering explanation is very appropriate. For all the volumes I've read this past week, his is the simplest definition of all. It's an overload or imbalance. And the cow? A perfect example of a self-created stress due to distractions.

And that, brothers and sisters, is my final answer.


(To anyone just tuning in - read Wed. May 13th's blog)

Stress - Emotional Illness vs Architecture? Part 2

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In my previous post I said I would do some "research" into stress. And I did.

It began with a look-up in my ten pound dictionary, a Webster's published in 1989. It had 12 definitions of stress - only two of those related to anything remotely emotional, the majority being architectural in nature. Seemed to me, if stress (emotional) was popular in 1989 it would have rated more coverage.

I consulted with my Thesaurus, published in 1992. Stunning contrast. Here is a list of just a few words associated with stress: affliction, albatross, anxiety, burden, dread, fear, ferment, hardship, impatience, mistrust, nervousness, tension, oppression, overextension, restlessness, worry. Now isn't that a lovely collection? I wonder if anyone would knowingly and willingly want any of those words anywhere near them?

Next book - Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. I was looking for the old, wise commentaries - those words of wisdom we love to quote and toss about for discussion. In the index, stress does not even stand alone but is coupled with "stress and disorientation", there were four quotes and none worth mentioning here, trust me. Point being, stress wasn't a topic discussed or written by the smart and famous.

Moving on to Goggle and what seemed to be an eternity reading all there was available on stress and the first thing I see is The American Institute of Stress. (Get OUT!) It's purpose, it says, is to advance our understanding of the role of stress in health and illness. We can't define it exactly but we have an Institute of it.

"There are things which will not be defined - fever is one of them. Besides, when a word has passed into everyday use, it is too late to lay a logical trap for its meaning and think to apprehend it by a definition." quote from Peter Mere Latham and it is on this very site, this institute! (There is a thermometer to measure fever, Peter! To measure stress shouldn't we at least have something other than a mood ring?)

A simple of explanation of stress (this is the NORMAL one everyone has) is --- say you have to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident. Stress is activated naturally (that old adrenial rush - the fight/flight response). After the incident is over, your body (nervous system) will quickly return to its normal state. But here's the catch. If you constantly re-play this incident over and over, tell everyone all day that you nearly were involved in a terrible crash, your nervous system "thinks" it is happening all over again and will activate that mysterious stress because it is not able to tell the difference between the reality and the story. Now you may enjoy telling stories of stressful events but remember what you are putting your body through. Studies have been done proving that blood pressure, heart rates and breathing changes occur when people work themselves into a froth retelling stories. Hey, your poor nervous doesn't KNOW its not happening right then. But your body is reacting whether you like it or not, whether you notice it or not, and over a prolonged period of time this creates a real health problem, perhaps several. Stress like this will, over time, manifest disease because you have caused systems internally to get out of whack. .

Long-term stressful situations (divorce, moving etc.) can produce a lasting low-level stress that is hard on people, can leave them overwhelmed, weaken the body's immune system and cause the merry-go-round of more problems, more stress, more problems. Stress is linked to so many diseases - high blood pressure, heart problems up the yang-yang, diabetes, stomach and bowel disorders, headaches, and the list goes on.

Being a firm believer in "what you think about expands for you" I can see how stress, even if you are mentally saying you are fighting stress, it will take on huge proportions. Must be. They created an Institute to provide understanding stress. Here's what they say about an experiement with rats and stress.

"In his experiments, Selye induced stress in rats in a variety of ways. He found typical and constant psychological and physical responses to the adverse situations that were imposed on the rats. In rats exposed to constant stress, he observed enlargement of the adrenal glands, gastrointestinal ulcers, and a wasting away (atrophy) of the immune (defense) system. He called these responses to stress the general adaptation (adjustment) or stress syndrome. He discovered that these processes, which were adaptive (healthy, appropriate adjustment) and normal for the organism in warding off stress, could become much like illnesses. That is, the adaptive processes, if they were excessive, could damage the body. Here then is the beginning of an understanding of why stress, really overstress, can be harmful, and why the word stress has earned such a bad name."

You could research and read about stress ad nauseum if you desire. There are a lot of people writing about stress - even MORE making a good living off of people who have stress, who expect that someone else can take it away from them or give them a pill for it. There are ridiculous statistics on how many patients a medical doctor sees that manifested physical symptoms from their attachment/involvement with stress (more than 60%!) It's painfully obvious that you don't want emotional stress in your life. It starts in your head with thoughts (thoughts - hello? Can we not manage thoughts?) and seeps in to destroy your health.

I know I sound somewhat exasperated with this topic. Admittedly I am. I had an all too serious stress "attack" a few years ago with devastating consequences medically. I know what stress can do. I sincerely want to help people avoid stress - and you CAN! I'd love to put the word "stress" on my list of words eliminated from my vocabulary. It would be in good company with the words "can't" and "fail" and "arthritis" - I never say those!

See my next installment on stress busters that will help you let go of this nasty thing if you are struggling, or to avoid it in the future altogether. If you have a stress buster that works for YOU, please put it in the comments to share with the world.
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Stress - Emotional Illness vs Architecture?

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This morning I was thinking about the word stress. It is in everyone's everyday vernacular now. The odd thing, though, I don't remember hearing about it during my childhood or teen years. Stress was a word associated with building - stress loads - meaning too much weight on the beams and the building would crumble. Too much imbalance and whatever you were creating would inevitably topple. I was taught this by my father playing Lincoln Logs, the ultimate in engineering lessons for children of those days. It made sense. It was all about balance.

The only other childhood reference to that word was in regard to the cows on the farm. They had to come in for milking or I was told they would experience stress. It sounded icky. I imagined cows exploding milk all over the place. When Grandpa told me to go find that mooing idiot stray cow who was far afield at milking time, I felt it was a mission to save a life. For whatever reason she was "distracted" or momentarily lost from the herd and always out there standing in some corner of the fence wondering who put the fence there, mooing (bitching, really) that she couldn't come in, when all she had to do was turn around and head back to the barn. And you know what? It was usually the same cow, over and over again, stressing herself out over nothing.

So that is my earliest memories of what stress is all about. I associated it with architecture and dumb cows. It wasn't something PEOPLE had!

Fast forward to today and it is everywhere - people have it, drug companies provide "medication" for it, doctors treat it, psychologist talk about it, and diseases come from it. How did this happen? Did it seep into the air we breathe? What the heck IS it? I hear people say they are fighting it, as if stress is the enemy. I hear people are so stressed they don't know what to do, where to turn, how to get away from it. (Sorry, but I think of the cow!)

I enjoy research and I'm going to do a few blogs on stress since the "side effects" of it are responsible for people dying of it, or becoming seriously ill. Stay tuned for the low down, a la Suzen. If you have a definition, example or antidote, please comment or email me. (But don't stress out over it!)
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Parenting - Passages - Letting Go

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Parenting can be a huge part of anyone's life. It certainly was front and center of mine for many years. I gobbled up parenting books (which never had the appropriate answer for the specific "problem"), I talked to other parents (comparing notes, sharing ideas, and yes, complaining) and I sought the advice of elders, wise survivors of parenting (who, though amused, reminded me "This too shall pass!").

Yesterday I found a passage of Khalil Gibran devoted to raising children that I wanted to share with you. While certainly not expecting to find these words, the serendipity of reading them on Mother's Day gave me that "Aha, nice for my blog" feeling.

"Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for it. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their owns thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you."

When I think back to those days of parenting, often the wisest words of advice or support actually came from some delightful people I knew that had NO children. And why? They were not all caught up in the emotional chaos that often inhabits the mind. They were objective. They offered words of consolation and reminded me to laugh.

I did laugh. I laughed a lot, though in retrospect I probably could have laughed more if I wasn't so hell bent on doing the "right" thing, fixing every little problem I perceived I had (notice the key word "perceived") and over-trying to teach lessons.

I saw a dad with his kids in the park. They were flying kites - running hard to get the kite up, controlling the skyward bound kite so it wouldn't hit the trees or tangle and crash, giving the kite more string so it could accelerate on its journey.

Sometimes there is injury, string "burns" or cuts on your hands. Sometimes many launches are required. But how exhilarating is that feeling of success, seeing that kite flying proudly in the sky? You did it! You got that kite up there soaring on its voyage to whereverland.

Raising kids - flying kites - a metaphor? The hardest part is letting go of the string.

I couldn't be prouder of my two kites "out there".


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Flowers for EVERYONE

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Not my favorite lyrics/singer but the visual is what I was after for MOTHER'S DAY - otherwise known as WOMAN's DAY lest any woman on the planet feel left out!

For ALL OF YOU - I send you these flowers - and hey, guys out there, you can enjoy it too! :)
You are ALL...............
.....................................................................ONE IN A MILLION!

ENJOY!!!

PERFECTIONISM - A Disease of Choice?

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When is good enough not good enough? When you suffer from hyper-perfectionism.

Amish quilters are known for their absolutely stunning quilts, all hand made of course. Are they perfect? No. Each quilter will purposely make a "mistake" on their quilt and the untrained eye would probably never see it. The quilter knows where it is - she put it there. And why, you ask? Because they fervently believe that perfection is something reserved for God, that perfection is only HIS department, and to imitate God is sinful. (I'm not Amish but boy I like this idea!)

So that's the Amish. The rest of us seem to be on some other quest. Make it perfect! Doesn't matter if we make ourselves not only stressed, but physically ill. Doesn't matter if we become so obsessed with this perfectionism that we make little progress over all because we are so hung up on this desire to have everything perfect.

Let's look at Martha Stewart. She makes the "perfect" cookie, has the "perfect" way to fold sheets, make the "perfect meal, centerpiece, bow, Christmas ornament" ad naseum. She is calm doing all her stuff, not hurried or rushed, and in fact there are times I wonder if that woman has been on some drug to be that unraveled. I had to think about this. Well it IS television after all, and she's no doubt practiced beforehand, and the big clue is she has a staff to clean up after her messy crafts and cooking. I'm thinking I might have a whole new level of calm in the kitchen if I knew some crew would clean up perfectly after I created this fabulous meal. But I have a problem with the quest to be perfect, make perfect, do perfect. It is exhausting. It is not human. It is certainly not efficient. And yet so much of today's stress comes from chasing this notion of perfect.

How many times have you thought you did something perfectly, in YOUR mind, only to have it criticized by someone else and THEIR notion of perfect? Perfection is all in the mind and I've been learning that thru so many venues for so many years that I'm done. What is perfect to me will not be perfect to you. So many times I've created things, a quilt, a painting, a meal, and was told it was perfect. No it wasn't. I could see where it wasn't, where I took a short cut and blew it (from a perfectionists standpoint mind you) and therefore would have felt more comfortable if the person sizing this up would have just said "Hey, that's good." Good is good enough for a rehabilitated perfectionist. I know my creative joy level has increased 100% in painting and everything I do because I've accepted the good is good enough attitude. I strive for quality, sure, but perfect? I'm done making myself crazy over that - maybe the Amish are right and that's God's department. I know this blog needs a lot of work - a day at a make-over spa with a good techy person - but if I was so hung up on it being the "perfect" pretty blog of my dreams I wouldn't even be writing yet! I am patient, not perfect. It's good enough for now. Someday a veritible daVinci with technical skills will waltz into my corner of the blogsphere and I leave it at that. It is what it is. What it is - is a relief that I'm not doing my perfectionist thing any more.

In the art world, perfectionism is the death of many an artist. Not only is the work never quite good enough in the mind of the artist, it may constantly develop elements that the artist feels need to be covered up or in some way changed. They may never finish the work, or they will drive themselves nuts and over-paint, over-work the piece, never satisfied. Where is the joy in that?

Where does this come from anyway? Parents or other elders are often fingered as the root of chronic perfectionism. As we ourselves are in some way not good enough, it is easy for our work to be seen as imperfect and a scapegoat for our "failed" selves. The early and enthusiastic approval of a work by a friend, spouse, art dealer or customer can offer some relief. But this can be difficult for shy, introverted or reclusive artists. Underlying fears and stresses need to be privately faced and understood.

While keeping in mind that "good enough is not good enough" for hyper-perfectionists, these sufferers need to find role models among the confident, audacious and efficient. Inefficiency is the perfectionist's game - but in art as in life, it's often dawdling, constant tweaking, changing, improving, chronic dissatisfaction with everything and/or completion avoidance. By not completing, one avoids judgment.

I was reading my art newsletter from Robert Genn - this was his topic in regard to artists and the disease of perfectionism but I think it is far-reaching, beyond just art, and a disease I know many people have. This disease is a choice. Don't blame anyone or anything for it. Chew on this bone and let us know how you deal (or not) with this notion of doing everything perfectly. How hooked on this are you?

On a lighter note, Genn said Leonardo de Vinci was the Patron Saint of Procrastinators. He suffered from "idealistic perfectionism" and knowing he could do something wasn't enough - thinking he could make it better kept him fiddling. Godonlyknows how long he took to paint the Mona Lisa ...........and I still don't think he got the smile right, do you?
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The Ultimate Quote - A ditty from auntie

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I read a lot of blogs that have themes for the day - whacky Wed., Thoughtful Thursdays, etc. and I so long to be that organized with what I am going to write about on my blog. No doubt I would mix them all up if I tried but I hope you enjoy the "variety" found here and the element of surprise (good God what did she write about NOW?!).

Well I'm about to share a little ditty that my 80 yr. old aunt forwarded to me. Sort of Mother's Day-ish - kind of - she said it was the ultimate quote.



"Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her
sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you
a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give
her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges
what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to
receive a ton of shit."


Way to go, auntie! She had seven kids and she is still laughing! (If you came here for inspiration, and not a giggle, read my last blog - yes, I know it's on a horse race - but inspiration is everywhere!)

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Kentucky Derby - Inspiration from a Long Shot!

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I usually do videos on Sundays, inspirational, quiet music, lovely art or pictures - however inspiration comes in a lot of different packages. After yesterday's awesome Kentucky Derby race and the unbelievable results, the inspiration factor merits a blog. Even if you are not a fan of horse racing, what happened at the Kentucky Derby yesterday - a 50-1 horse came out of nowhere to win! On a sloppy track and with rain off and on all day, Mine That Bird literally blew away the field. In doing so, blew away the favorites, the horses/jockeys/trainers who received ALL the pre-race hype for a solid week, non-stop. Anyone betting on #8 yesterday, and there obviously weren't many, walked away with a pile of money. I saw the faces of a few - shock and disbelief but jubilant and glowing.

We were at Arlington Race Track yesterday - it's not Churchill Downs - but the "flavor" is much the same and the Derby race was shown on huge screens everywhere - the local races stopped to watch the biggie. The roar of the crowd as a race is about to finish is so exhilarating, not to mention ordinarily almost deafening, but as the 50-1 horse reached the finish line ahead by a good margin, there was a drop in pitch from the crowd. I think it is technically called surprise!

It just goes to show you the power of coming from behind, believing you can do something with all your heart, and NOT listening to what all the "experts" tell you. It's about going for it, no matter the odds. It's about allowing others to get all the press and hoopla and remaining in the background, unnoticed and humble. It's about not being intimidated, not by the circumstances (weather conditions) or the competition.

There is message for one and all in this "impossible" win. If you are the underdog, the less-favored, and the odds against you don't give up, go for it! If you have heart, belief in yourself and sheer determination, you too can win!

Here's the race - grab on to the inspiration offered by a horse totally ignored til he won. The announcer didn't even SEE this horse coming from behind as he was too busy keeping track of the favorites. It wasn't until it was painfully obvious the horse was winning that he even called his name!





(BTW - The long shot I'd bet on was #9, who led 3/4 of the race, but I did ok with winning 2nd and 3rd - a great day all in all - no truck carrying a payload but fun and filled with inspiration!)
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