the way back

I think of faith sometimes in the same way that we collect a horse..

There is a proper frame of movement for an animal w/ a rider that can only occur when the rider is balanced and riding to ALLOW the horse to move forward.. The gait becomes light and graceful, the head carriage has the nose pointed at the ground and the eye directly above it, in a line nearly perpendicular to the earth..The horse reaches forward w/ his hind legs, to provide deep impulsion...

It is possible to make a horse appear to have his head in the self carriage position, but not actually be there..It's done by hauling the horse's nose in with the hands, or by tieing his head down or using other gadgets, like draw reins, to facilitate a "look"....It makes no provision for harmonizing w/ the animals center of gravity or the riders effect on it...

It ends up in a disfigurement we call a swan neck and of course all the lightness and impulsion of real self carriage is lacking, for something that "mimics" balance..

This false carriage has the effect of stringing the horse out, making im appear to "run", like a child running down a hill, falling forward to keep up with his feet, as opposed to trotting forward, lightly ....

Faith and belief are like that.. those who move w/ their true self carriage are obvious to one who understands the objective..

Most just try to cram themselves into the frame work of a tie-down dogma, any dogma, political, spiritual, whatever...but it's obvious to anyone who knows a bit about grace, when someone moves w/ true balance...

A working belief, of whatever color or breed or denomination, will carry you forward in lightness and harmony over any obstacle, through any thicket or swamp, and it will always know the shortest way home..

1+1=1

I have practiced two martial arts... aikido and horsemanship

 it is common knowledge that a skilled martial artist can defend against a
much larger attacker...
in the dojo they speak of the softness of water that
wears away the toughest stone...
Terry Dobson called it
"giving in to get your way"... the irony is that this skill comes only through tempering the personality
w/ painful physical, mental and spiritual testing.. most people do not think of horsemanship as a martial art, but the
domestication of the horse may have been one of the most historically
important innovations in the technology of warfare..
right up there with iron, steel, and gunpowder.

the finesse of
dressage is based on centering, balance, suppleness, and harmony..all
principles of the Asian hand to hand arts...
The movements themselves are
European battle field techniques... the three day event was once a test to
join the cavalry, proving that horse and rider had the mettle cross country over battlefield fences
and the discipline for the parade ground ...even the trophy belt buckle has it's origin in the plate armour belly protection of the spanish conquistadores