I’ve you’d asked me at Thanksgiving how I expected to spend the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, I would not have answered “sitting in a freezing cold horse arena watching Gleek have her first riding lesson.” Horseback riding lessons were not even on my radar as a possibility back then. I watched Gleek attempting to post and succeeding for short periods of time before losing the rhythm. I listened to the teacher explain how she needs to control her body and also how the teacher spoke to the horse. I realized that teaching a fractious horse is probably not much different than teaching self control to an impulsive young girl. This teacher will be good for both. So each Tuesday afternoon we’ll be travel ling to the horse barn. I will sit, maybe write. Gleek will learn.
We don’t know yet whether riding horses will be something we do for a while and then move on to other things or whether we’ve just opened a door into an alternate future. The same is true of Patch and his cello. His first official lesson will take place next week, but yesterday his cousin sat down with Patch and gave a basic lesson in bowing, plucking and music theory. The fact that Patch paid rapt attention for more than ninety minutes suggests that he’ll like playing cello. Again, we have to wait and see. My focus is on providing opportunities for the next several months rather than on planning futures.