May 2008

Meet Molly (an amazing horse)

Meet Molly. She’s a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners when Katrina hit southern Louisiana, USA . She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.But after surgeon Rustin Moore met Molly, he changed his mind. He saw how the pony was careful to lie down on different sides so she didn’t seem to get sores, and how she allowed people to handle her. She protected her injured leg. She constantly shifted her weight, and didn’t overload her good leg. She was a smart pony with a serious survival ethic.Moore agreed to remove her leg below the knee and a temporary artificial limb was built. Molly walked out of the clinic and her story really begins there.”This was the right horse and the right owner,” Moore insists.Molly happened to be a one-in-a-million patient. She’s tough as nails, but sweet, and she was willing to cope with pain. She made it obvious she understood (that) she was in trouble. The other important factor, according to Moore , is having a truly committed and compliant owner who is dedicated to providing the daily care required over the lifetime of the horse.Molly’s story turns into a parable for life in post-Katrina Louisiana . The little pony gained weight, her mane felt a comb. A human prosthesis designer built her a leg.The prosthetic has given Molly a whole new life, Allison Barca DVM, Molly’s regular vet, reports.And she asks for it! She will put her little limb out, and come to you and let you know that she wants you to put it on. Sometimes she wants you to take it off too.” And sometimes, Molly gets away from Barca. “It can be pretty bad when you can’t catch a three-legged horse”, she laughs.Most important of all, Molly has a job now. Kay, the rescue farm owner, started taking Molly to shelters, hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers. Anywhere she thought that people needed hope. Wherever Molly went, she showed people her pluck. She inspired people. And she had a good time doing it.”It’s obvious to me that Molly had a bigger role to play in life”, Moore said, “She survived the hurricane, she survived a horrible injury, and now she is giving hope to others.”"She’s not back to normal,” Barca concluded, “but she’s going to be better. To me, she could be a symbol for New Orleans itself.”

(ps the prosthetic has a smile imprint that she leaves when she walks!!!!)

Inspirational story

I saw another story on TV regarding a young man about 16 in northern Calif. who was out partying late one night, he walked home drunk out in the country, and passed out on a railroad track. He was hit by a train and lost both legs above the knee (I am not sure that he did not also lose part of an arm, but I can’t remember now). He survived, and went on to become the first double above knee prosthetic person to be able to walk downstairs. He was determined to do it, and he made it work. They pushed the design on prosthetics to be able to do this through working with him as a test case. It was very difficult, and took him a long time to be successful.

On the primetime evening news show that had an interview with him took him to the exact spot on the tracks where he had the train accident. Earlier in the interview he talked about the pain, and how difficult it was to adjust to the prosthetics, and knowing how he’d done it. They asked him how he felt about himself now, and being at this place (on the tracks). He looked at it and said something about it being where his life began. He was not on a very good path, and this was the site of his chrysalis, where he took on his re-birth in his new form. That is the gist of what I remember.

He goes around now to hospitals in Calif. where vets from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are recovering from amputee surgeries, talks to them about his process, and gives them hope. His amputee site is higher than most of them, and with a double situation, he is a real inspiration for them, just like Molly, the horse.

Is the glass half empty, or half full?

Remember to say “Hot Dog! I got another day!” and enjoy this one,

A new Earth

A New Earth

Recently, I have been involved in Oprahs webcasts covering each chapter of “A New Earth”, by Eckart Tolle. I have found this to be incredibly therapeudic. It has saved me thousands of dollars in therapy. I urge you to go to Oprah.com and view the webcast archives while reading the book. It has truly transformed my life.
The most amazing thing to me is to realize the number of lives being changed by this 10 week event. There are over 11 million people watching and downloading this series. To have that many people being awakened at the same time is incredibly powerful and urgently necessary.
I had picked up the book after getting many signs to do so. Strangely enough, after reading the first five chapters and listening to the webcasts, I found that I had the book on CD all along. I don’t remember when I bought it, I just remember starting to listen to it and turning it off and giving up after the second CD. To be honest, I got bored with it and forgot about it. This is a book filled with very deep insights. The need to follow closely and listen intently was not something I found easy at the time. Life was too busy and hectic.
The fact that the webcast was created was miraculous to me. I found it very interesting and it was much easier to cover one chapter at a time slowly. My thanks to Oprah for bringing this event to the world and transforming a countless number of lives!
The book is about Awakening. To “awaken” is to live in the present moment, appreciate every moment in your life, and recognize and disolve egoic thoughts in order transcend into a state of consciousness and personal happiness.
This is not always an easy process. Our egos and our pain bodies are strong. They have been fed for years and years with negative thoughts, patterns, and events.
Awakening starts with simple awareness. Once you can recognize and be aware of these thoughts as coming from the ego, you can disolve them. Once you disolve one, you can disolve another and another. It gets easier as you go along. The book helps you to do just that.
Keep in mind, it is not for everybody. Some people are simply not ready for it and that’s okay. Give it a try, you might be surprised. Leslie