Posted by a friend
Amigo came into my life 32 years ago as an answer to a life long dream and a way to distract myself from the sudden passing of my dear brother. Amigo was in an ad in the local paper as an off the track thoroughbred appendix. Thinking I knew horses because I had loved them my entire life, I went to meet him. We went for a ride and I was hooked on this gangly youngster. Green broke, no problem! Or so I thought.
Amigo was delivered to the pasture boarding area I had chosen. He was put into a herd of over 40 horses. He loved it. I hated it. I couldn’t catch him! And, when I did, I found he was barely green broke. So, Amigo’s first lesson for me was patience and persistence.
Pasture boarding wasn’t going to work, and so, we moved to a ranch where we had an arena and smaller runs so that I could catch Amigo. From then on we had many adventures together in learning to trust each other, to be in the moment, to see the brightness of life, to love. Oh, the lessons I learned with that gentle being!
Never give up, no matter what, was a big lesson that Amigo and I learned together. After a divorce, my former husband announced that he was moving east with my daughters. It seemed to me that I had no choice. I was deeply distraught. Here I was thinking I had done the right thing in moving forward away from this marriage, and now I was losing my precious kids. And, to make matters worse, the very next day, I got a call that Amigo had been horrifically hurt and needed me to make the decision to euthanize him. Talk about bleak.
As I drove to Amigo, I turned my thought to God. At first, I was angry that I was losing so much when I was trying to do the right thing. Gently, the thought came, “What seems to be so bad, might just be good.” What? How could that be? But gently and persistently, I got the message to trust Love, and certainly expect good.
The vet who had been called was willing to give Amigo a chance and showed me how to care for his major injuries. Each day that summer, I drove the 60 miles round trip to care for him. Every day, I could see his love, trust, intelligence, brightness, and wholeness shine through. He walked and then he ran with great joy. Often, my daughter would help me care for him and she also felt this tangible sense of Love’s care. She decided not to move. What seems to be bad, just might be good, was true. More than the love of just riding him, Amigo and I found the love of Love.
Trust Love was a theme that Amigo and I shared. One day, while galloping up a hill way out in the forest, Amigo stepped into a large rodent hole that had just appeared on the trail that day. He pitched forward scrambling to upright himself, but instead landed on me, snapping something in my leg and slamming my head to the ground. I remember thinking “No! God is right here.”
Dazed, I turned from the ground to see Amigo staggering to his feet, along with my other horse, Cally. Both of them came right to me, nuzzling and encouraging me to get up. I tried but my ankle wasn’t working. Another gentle nudge from Amigo came, as the thought from God told me to get on Amigo. I don’t know how I got on, but I did. As I struggled to remain conscious, the angel thought kept insisting “There are NO accidents in Love” and “Trust that.”
I couldn’t imagine how I was going to get home. No one knew where we were. “Trust that,” I kept hearing, and with that thought, Amigo started ever so slowly heading toward home. Without guidance from me, Amigo and Cally carefully maneuvered the hills and creeks, getting me home to a neighbor who took me to my house. Within a week I was walking and then running, again, with great joy. That was Love.
See the light beyond turned out to be one of the greatest lessons we both gained in our journey together. Amigo and I often synced our hearts. We’d stand for hours together watching the sun set over his pasture, seeing the clouds drift by, feeling the sun warm our backs, gazing at the deer grazing with the horses, and just love life. We felt lifted and buoyed by those moments.
One day, Amigo made it known to me that he was ready to move on. We had spent the last few weeks trusting Love that life is eternal, a continuous unfoldment of good that is ever present. We had shared that life is Spirit, free from the bondage of material life.
In the moments before Amigo passed, I turned to the light of Truth to see beyond the picture of a material Amigo. Amigo is always the finest example of Love, of Life. Holding to those true facts, I gazed out at his pasture to the lushness of the green grass and the sparkling pond.
With a great “whoosh,” I felt through my entire being a pure freedom, a limitless joy, and beautiful love, and saw Amigo gallop across his lush grassy pasture. Safe, free, and whole, he ran. No sadness, no separation, just the joy of life. The light beyond eternally spread, and thus, we kept on our journey together.