Edges

I attended the annual Horses and Healing Conference recently (equine facilitated mental health orientation) at Horse Power in Temple, New Hampshire. Toward the end we were asked to find something that represents our heart's desire which we would use as part of a closing exercise.

I looked for a small pebble, remembering Mark Rashid's sharing what he carries in his pocket as a reminder (for 'gratitude' as I recall). I found a small piece of granite that had some smooth sides and some edges and thought this is good, it represents who I am, some smooth sides, some edges...

Then I got thinking about my heart's desire, and started looking for another pebble. I realized I wanted something that represents the smooth sides and the smoothed edges, as that is what I want to focus on, that is what I want to practice, that is what I want -- an increasingly smooth 'me' with fewer and fewer edges. Like the image I got from Mark talking about learning and refinement -- starting with a block of wood, then if you cut across all the corners to remove them, you have a block of wood with many more, but smaller edges and corners. Cut across all those corners and again you are left with more but smaller corners with less acutely angled edges. What I would call softer edges.

So I have this small pebble in my pocket and when I touch it, I think of softness and when my fingers come over the edged parts of the pebble, I feel the softness of the edges and rub some, bringing my intention for softness to the front of my consciousness while actually bringing more softness to the edges of the pebble.