Peppermints

I know it is a little early for a picture of a horse all decked out for Christmas, but this week James talked about peppermints. Which led to candy canes. And, it just seemed like the perfect picture for the story. 

The photo was taken about seven years ago. A sweet little girl at my barn didn’t have a horse to ride for the Halloween show because her horse was lame. Not wanting to see a kid left out of all the fun, I offered to let her ride James. I told her that she could dress up James however she wanted. Oh, my. She thought of everything, and good thing the show was running behind because it took us quite awhile to get James all decked out. Sometimes I wonder why horses tolerate our silly shenanigans. We’ll call it little girl magic. But, I’ll never forget watching him canter around the ring all cross-eyed because he was staring at the red fuzzy ball attached to his nose. (You know-Rudolph!) But, he won her a blue ribbon anyway.

Here’s James telling us about peppermints. There always seems to be a message inside the message:

“There are some not so nice people in the world. Some are dimwits, too! But, let’s just focus on peppermints. They are sweet and the sweetness lingers. We need that. I like how I can roll it around my mouth, and how the sweetness captures my tongue. My tongue gets very interested. A peppermint is so distinctly different from food or even other treats. When there is a peppermint in my mouth, it is a peppermint meditation.

We can choose to meditate on sweetness even if the world around us doesn’t seem so sweet. You know, it is almost that time of year for candy canes!” --James