Among others, my sister thinks that I’m leading an idyllic life. And in fact, I have heard visitors say “you are living the dream!” They are right. I am more fortunate than most, and I often look around and wonder how I got so lucky. I quite obviously made some good decisions along the way. I have friends who I don’t think were as fortunate. Then again, this could be a matter of perspective. Some, like my friend Jacki, enjoy living in the city. I would not be happy living in such a setting; although I sure do enjoy spending time in urban environs. There is just so much to see and check out in such places. And I love eating out.

It’s thought that to a large part, my life is idyllic because I determine what I do in any given day. This is also true – I come up with and follow my own daily, weekly, monthy agenda. However, even though my life comes close, it is not idyllic, for my having to determine what I do in a given day has its own down side.

The down side is that my living the so-called “good life” is dependent upon my remaining fairly disciplined. If I don’t, it don’t get done. And if it don’t get done, the day is a waste. Today is a good example. This morning, I could have gone with Pete to get hay.

Carved stump near Commisary Park

It would have been fun, to spend time talking with our friend and hay guy, John DePriest. Instead, I worked on the article for the Icelandic Horse Quarterly about our trip – the deadline is Tuesday – and I read the soft tissue section in my EMT book. The consequence of my morning decision making process is that I’ll have another article appear in the Icelandic Horse Quarterly, which could conceivably open doors related to other trips. And studying the EMT material might mean that someday I’ll save a life.

In the afternoon, Pete went to a recycling meeting and invited me to come along. Once again, I declined, my reason being that I needed to get horses out. So I instead first took Tyra for an outing on what I’m calling the residential ride. She handled what we encountered – an RV parked at one end of a field and a step ladder stationed at the end of another field, just fine.

Pete came home and we got Hrimmi and Raudi out for a ride. Ryder came with us. The outside day concluded with my taking Tinni for a walk on our trails. All our horses are superstars – a joy to be with and a joy to ride. The reason is that though sometimes I’m feeling lazy, I get them out and provide them with the best of care.

It takes discipline to have a high quality of life. It does not just happen. Sometimes you just have to consider the consequences inherent to foregoing what most needs to be done.

End of rant. This evening I have to do my EMT homework, due Sunday because I won’t have time to do this tomorrow or Sunday. Tomorrow I have class. And Sunday I have friends coming over and an evening meeting. As Kurt Vonnegut once remarked “and so it goes.”

Next: 268. 9/28/19: Once a Student, Always a Student