Guest Blog Post By Nancy Lee Gerson
Faith and Certainty: The Twin Graces of My Spiritual Relationship with My Herd
Over the past twelve years, I’ve lived with several magnificent horses, devoting body, mind, and spirit to their welfare. For all that I have learned about them, I have learned at least as much about myself. What a GRACE-FILLED way to do one’s inner work of self-discovery!
Over those years, I’ve described the arch of that journey in particular ways. I’ve grown rather comfortable with those descriptions, with how I think about the through lines that run through the story of “Nancy’s Life with Horses.” Learn how to notice, interpret, and ACT upon the synchronistic and serendipitous occurrences in your life: Divine Timing is real! Learn this and empower yourself to step into the authentic life you were meant to live!
Indeed, my equine memoir, “The Horse Who Changed My Life: My Serendipitous Journey through Equus;” contributing author in “Touched By A Horse Equine Coaching Stories,” are largely devoted to this.
These descriptions mainly have to do with how paying attention to the serendipitous and synchronistic events in my life brought me to the point of changing my life in radical ways--including leaving behind my family, a thriving law practice, financial security, and the folk-rock band I’d co-founded. Moving 1800 miles west to live with Cherokee, a dark bay gelding I’d only known for five days.
When you invited me not only to be a guest on your podcast to talk about my relationships with my horses but also to choose the theme for our chat, my mind immediately began rifling through the familiar ways in which I’ve thought about those relationships.
And then something stopped me. And that something—I’m certain you’re familiar with it—was the inner voice that speaks to us, sometimes loudly and in a whisper. And what came through was the idea that I should take a fresh look and see if any new perspectives might present themselves.
Well, no surprise: they did! No sooner had that voice spoken than two words sprang to mind: faith and certainty. y whole being said YES to that! I’m so thankful you requested that I send along a short essay—I prefer to think of it as a written contemplation—before the podcast. I had procrastinated a bit in getting down to the assignment, but, as Divine Timing would have it, the theme that truly spoke to me came when it did, no sooner and no later!
So then: faith and certainty. The first thing I’d like to share is exactly what the title of this essay fully gives away: Faith and Certainty are the twin graces that have fostered my spiritual relationships with my horses not merely since Day One but before that-TRUE!
One of the hugest TEACHINGS has been that it is best to trust and honor the DIVINE timing when these two GRACES present themselves to me and keep going and showing up!
In reflecting upon several of the key elements, for lack of a better word, of this equine-human journey, I realize that there are times when faith com first and certainty catches up with faith. At the same time, at other times, certainty is there from the get-go, and faith provides me with the courage I need to keep going when self-sabotaging doubts want to take over. And I think there have been times when I couldn’t honestly say which came first or if they were intertwined, both enabling me to fulfill my soul’s Number One desire: to do right by my horses.
Yes! There it is, the fresh perspective on my spiritual relationships with my horses! Without in any way casting aside the older, more familiar perspectives, the fresh one is this: The arch of this journey, the main through line of it, is this: Allowing FAITH and CERTAINTY to pave the paths that lead, year after year, to the fulfillment of my soul’s desire to do right by my horses.
In the course of our podcast together, I’ll offer examples of times when faith came first, times when certainty came first, and times when they seemed to be woven together.
Life has many joys and triumphs but also many trials and travails. Taking it all in stride can be challenging: the path is rendered easier when we trust and honor DIVINE TIMING and count our blessings when we are GRACED with FAITH or CERTAINTY...or both. Amen.
Advocate for all sentient life; I show readers how to pay attention to synchronicities and serendipities in their lives so that they can take the leap into a more authentic life! I am the author of “The Horse Who Changed My Life: My Serendipitous Journey through Equus;” and contributing author of “Touched By A Horse Equine Coaching Stories;” I am a Reiki practitioner; certified equine Gestalt coach; attorney; who lives with horses, dogs, cats, & neighborhood deer, squirrels, & groundhogs…and a few humans!
JOIN ME US TOMORROW, Jan 17, 2023, at 6:30 pm MST as we talk about walking by faith to live the life you want.
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