Kristine E. Brickey

It's been a rough couple of weeks around here if I'm being totally honest. Covid. Fallout symptoms of exhaustion and a heaviness in my lungs and chest that keep my 'to do list' out of attainment. I am not a person who enjoys idling when there are so many things I love.  Yesterday happened. Everything was 'fine', in that nothing was really wrong...but there I sat, crying on the couch because a familiar website morphed before my eyes into a new display. Not a big deal...except, it suddenly was more than I could take.  It was the final thing, sent me over the top. Off the edge. My body shook. Tears wouldn't stop. Whatever energy reserve I had fizzled away, leaving me empty and depleted. Similar reactions had been happening in less dramatic versions the last few days, but yesterday was top notch meltdown. Eventually, I recovered, got my ducks in a row, so to speak, and moved on with other things. I took care of some less physically strenuous tractor/pasture work...

Even as 2024 taught me the power of prioritizing joy, so much so in fact that I have vowed to pursue this goal even deeper in 2025, there are still days where I feel life weighing upon my heart. This morning, as I enjoyed my morning ritual of coffee, word puzzles, and snuggles with Frankie in my little couch nest, a wave of melancholy washed over me.  I know it stems from grief.  I know it will always be with me, a lesson that solidified during my time with Becky Howell of Equine-led Holistic Success (formerly Meeting Place Equine). I stood in the barn aisle, listening to my body, asking my shoulder where and why the tension originated from. (Yes, I was initially rolling my eyes behind my closed lids...until I heard my body respond.) First, the word pain. I was stunned. Astonished. I'd truly only complied with Becky's directions, never expecting results from what I thought was a too hooey-hooey ask even for me!  And then, as I listened with a slightly more open mind, my s...