90 years old… a very tiny well dressed, silver haired lady with an Australian accent makes her entrance on a Thursday evening to the Ranch… I ask her if she would like a glass of wine… Of course she replies as she takes off her little fur headband off and fixes her hair… my dining room tables look like a high chair for this petite lady… As we spend the evening listening to her stories leaving Australia and her sister to come to America… of working for Neiman and Marcus… living in Portland, Oregon, South Carolina, California and St. Louis… Her grandchildren and flying business class to Australia at least once a year… In this petite woman lies a fire at 90 years old… a zest for life and a sparkle in her eyes… Her hands are worn and fingers crooked from years of work and arthritis setting in yet she still wears a beautiful silver ring, she twirls and swirls while she laughs when I ask of her history… Her feet swing and twirl a foot off the ground and she acts like a school girl when she talks of how the nuns used to reprimand her at the private school… My big Elena dog checks on her and the stories stop so she can pet her… Elena’s head reminds me how small Jewels actually is… Jewels Gallagher, her full name and she proud of it… she speaks of her mother and father with great pride… Irish catholic and Italian are her roots… I finally get a word in… I ask what’s your favorite place? She’s stops… looks to the ceiling and rubs her hands across her lips… nickering to herself… a deep breathe and she answers “… it’s not the places – it’s the people… people make the places I believe not the place itself…” as she keeps pondering her answer to the ceiling… a sip of red wine she goes off to visit all the dogs in the house… she lives in the Moment and seems to soak in life… I sit back and smile… so many times we see the old and roll our eyes for them telling the same story over or having “squirrel” moments or perhaps correcting them of dates and stories… I have learned to embrace it all… who cares if the story is a repeat or not quite right— it’s their memory at that moment and time… and her statement “it’s the people not the place” has proven true to me each weekend I travel… I fly somewhere, drive… and when I get home… what sticks is the laughter, the love, the effort people put into their horses and themselves… the feel of a good hug, the sun shining down… the smell of the horses and perhaps near by flowers… the smiles of old friends and the nervous giggle of a new student… It becomes more clear every minute of every day to throw positive into the universe as it truly does come back two fold… Life is definitely what we make it to be… If you do what is easy your life will be hard… Do what is hard and your life will be easy… I see it and I love the crazy mess it is… Easy isn’t my way… I work hard at being in the moment- and as my friend Mike Beaver told me… “It’s the moments make the days the days don’t make the moments” So much to remember, learn and explore… Do you live in the moment?
Posted in Inspiration & Philosophy