In a continuation of my Costa Rica chronicles…I’ve been thinking a lot about my last day at the horse and soul workshop, when we rode our horses to a river and got in the water with them. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. Last week I wrote about how Cosmo (the horse who picked me) showed me the importance of play and joy…well, all the horses embraced that concept as soon as they entered the river. They immediately started happily punching the water with a front hoof—splashing themselves, other horses, and us. Cosmo, the King of Play? He got down on his back and rolled around in the water like a dog rolling in the grass. PURE JOY.
So as I’m splashing around with Cosmo, Mr. Big (the horse who picked me last year) steps into the river and walks right up to us. (Our trail guide had ridden him to the river with us.) Mr. Big could have gone anywhere in that river, up to anyone else or off on his own, but I knew there was a message in his joining me. He stood facing Cosmo’s hind quarters, and I knelt in the water looking up at both of them in awe of these two beautiful creatures with whom I got to spend the week. In that moment I could see all the support they both had given me in the past several days, all the help and the patience they showed me.
Then I got the message. Mr. Big was lined up perfectly with Cosmo right in front of me and telling me to read from left to right: "Mr. Big, Cosmo." "Big cosmo(s)." In other words, “We support you and always have your back, just like the huge universe around you.”
I flashed back to a few days before, when one morning my group was doing a “check in” where we share anything that’s coming up for us in the moment. (It’s not unusual, during a week of soul work with horses, for stuff to come up!) I was feeling emotional and vulnerable, and about to take my turn to talk, when my friend Kathy said, “Julie, it’s your turn—and you have so much support around you!” I hadn’t even noticed, but the three little dogs who live at the retreat had settled in around me on my yoga mat. And their presence felt really, really good.
Last week I did a reading for a client, and I connected to her dog who had recently passed. One of the messages the dog came through with was for her human to remember those times when she’d witnessed the powerful support of the universe around her. This client had experienced specific instances of that happening, and the dog wanted her to revisit that feeling to help her through her grief.
So when has the universe shown up for you? It could be anything—like finding the perfect job opportunity, running into a friend after a long time…The universe has infinite possibilities of how it shows its support. Just ask the horses who told me to read from left to right, or the three dogs on a yoga mat.
It’s all about the magic. 🙌