I’m back at Eleanor’s place and by myself. This is a radical change after being surrounded by hundreds of people. I did not enjoy being around so many people, even though we were all like-minded. The first two days I decided to forego eating lunch with others, first because it was so expensive and secondly because I’d by 2:00 p.m. had my fill of people. I really enjoyed retreating to the motel room that I was sharing with Claudia and June.

Today I checked out by 11 a.m., so of course I by then found myself wishing that I still had that room. I didn’t have it, so at lunch time I walked in with the others and joined them for lunch.

June was nice enough to save me a spot at the same table and next to Alexandra Kurland. I had a nice chat with her. I would have had more insightful questions if I wasn’t overwhelmed by the crowd around me.

It’s now back to the semi-monastic lifestyle. I am eager to get home and put what I have learned the past few days to practice. Simple things like using a mouth click instead of a clicker, and more complex things like working with horses on doing patterns and loops. Also, I’m looking forward to doing mat training with them.

If all that I learned was new to me I might throw up my hands and not give any of it a go. But I now have a more broad-based knowledge base. And I have an excellent resource person in Alexandra Kurland. I hope, in the future, to take an online course with her. And maybe, just maybe, when I go to NY in April, I’ll be able meet up with her again.

I’m trying, in my head, to make the connections between positive reinforcement training and world peace. Right now things are in a state of considerable disarray on the political front. And they are going to get worse before they get better. We who live in this country are bracing ourselves for the worst, even though we can’t comprehend just how bad things are going to be.

Consider it; people in other countries have had their lives torn asunder. This could and most likely will happen to us. We stand a good chance of losing all we hold dear to us, family members, animals, homes included.

I must stand up for what I believe to be right, ethical, moral, and just. Not being judgmental, this is hardest life lesson. I am thinking this way to a large degree because I have good teachers, both animals and human. I sought out people I could work with because I wanted to better connect with animals. This was a causal connection.

There has also been a karmic connection. The animals in my life appeared when they did because they were aware that I needed to be thinking in a more positive fashion.

Clicker training puts it all on the line. It’s an extreme in terms of animal-centered values. The premise behind it, that click means yes, is based on nurturance and acceptance. Clicker training is also life-affirming. The visible connector is of course food. But the act of feeding is nurturance, the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.

I can make a justification for this type of training as well as TTeam and Centered Riding training.

I am in February going to attend a local horse symposium. I will put together a good presentation beforehand. In this way I will assist others in making like connections.

My focus is not on one particular modality, but rather on several. This is not either/or but rather and/also thinking. This also takes me full circle, back to my dissertation.

The other night I dreamt that I didn’t finish my dissertation. I was getting in an elevator, going to fifth floor of UWM’s Curtain Hall. I saw some guy that I didn’t recognize. I woke up and realized that yes, I did finish my dissertation. This was disconcerting. The subliminal message might be that I need to be less dubious about what it is that I do know.

The wind was pushing at my back again this weekend. It had been a while since this had occurred. A good thing, I enjoy the feeling, However, I need to use the time in between gusts wisely.

Next: 31. 1/30/17: Ruminating