Dreaming A New Dream

 

            It's the first day of a new year and I want to share with you a new dream - well sort of a new dream!  All my life I've been drawn to animals because they are easy to be with.  Their companionship is unwavering, their love without condition, and their loyalty without question.  They have literally saved my life more than once.

            As those who have followed my journey this last year know, I've been seeking and searching how to be in this world in a new way.  Animals have always called my name, but as a social worker by trade, people have been my focus for the last 25 years.  Before that it was creativity through film and writing.  The last few years I've tried to pull it all together and what I want to share is how I think I can!

             A few weeks ago I turned on my solar radio that seemed to get only one station in English.  It is a Christian station and I like listening to music honoring God so I thought - cool!  On this day, at this time they were interviewing a woman named Kim Meeder who is an author and owns the Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch.  She was telling the story of a horse named Hero.

            I can't give you the whole story of Hero here, but by the end I was hysterical with tears, moved more than I have been in years, and inspired to do what ever it takes to get past my fears!  I had just been a witness to a woman who was living her truth in the same way I want to live mine - with her whole heart and soul - bravely and without limiting the depth of her love and belief in Love and God. 

            Her telling of Hero's story answered a question in my own mind I'd been asking for a very long time - how can I stop looking at the suffering and see only the truth in animal and human?  Hero answered that question for me - because HE didn't look at his suffering, only at his own will to live and love of life and how that has been a gift of grace and courage to countless others who have listened to his story through his eyes.

            The Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch is a place where horses and children find each other to heal.  The number of stories are too numerous and can be found in the books Kim Meeder and her husband Troy Meeder write - but they are so inspiring and uplifting they are a must read for us all.

            At the ranch there is never any charge to a child.  The ranch is run by the family, staff, and volunteers and everyone who makes donations.  And here is the message I want to share - what could be a more worthy investment of anyone's money, time, or energy than the healing of children and animals?

            In a season where men and women are hurting each other to buy athletic shoes at $100 or more - how did we ever get to a place where the image we want to project to the world is more valuable than the truth we hold in our hearts about our own worth?

            We build the world around us by what we feel within us.  When we feel worthy and loved we create a world that is loving - but when we are fearful and insecure and angry - then we get the world we've got.  And as I always say, you can only ever be a part of the problem or the solution - which will you choose?

            I am not the only one who has been inspired by Kim's words.  Many others have started similar ministries in their own areas.  And that is the point….to be inspired to love and give the love you feel within you in a way that blesses everyone and takes away from no one.

            At the end of the interview Kim talked about a girl of 11 who said it simply - that God was Love.  Love doesn't ask to be called by a specific name or worshipped in a specific way.  Love doesn't ask to be honored with idols or rituals or sacrifices.  Love just wants to be given away because the more love you give, the more love you will have.  This is the truth we are all seeking to find - and it is as simple as it can get.

            So here is my own dream - not to start a ranch myself, but to start sharing with you all what others are doing to rescue, heal, and save animals and humans by honoring the relationship between us both. 

            The world will not change nor be saved by war or attack or money.  It will be only through the power of love that MUST come from within us.  My appreciation and gratitude I want to offer to Kim Meeder for showing me what that looks like in action - her words, her work, and her life.

            While I have never met you I have been inspired and healed by your words and your actions - as have so many others.  This is who each of us are called to be.  We need only begin in our own way each day, with a smile or a prayer or a dollar given to someone who is hungry with our love and not our judgment.