Clyde is a handsome four year old dun who spent most of his time in fenced enclosures without access to grass. His main diet was dry hay bales and cubes.
Occasionally he’d find bits of weeds or grass to nibble on the other side of his pen, and that was his habit – always reaching for whatever was on the other side.
Which I understand. If you’re a horse and you prefer fresh greens, it makes sense you’d always be reaching for the other side. I get it.
This spring Clyde came to live up here in my two acre pasture full of tender fresh green grass. So much beautiful grass! Plenty to eat, right under his feet!
Surely this would be his dream come true … the horse who was always reaching for dried out clumps of weeds on the other side of his enclosure would undoubtedly find this to be heaven on earth!
And it was! Clyde loved it! He reveled in the lush spring grass that was everywhere he wandered in his new pasture. He was loving it!
For about three days.
That’s when I noticed Clyde was back to his old habit of reaching for the other side of the fence again. Despite the fact that he was still standing on premium feed, literally beneath his feet. Despite the fact that the grass was the exact same on both sides of the fence. There he was trying to get at what was just on the other side.
As I watched him reach over premium grass to try to eat the premium grass on the other side of the fence, I recognized that habit of striving. That’s all it is – a habit. A routine of reaching for what’s over there, thinking that’ll be better. Even though we’re standing right smack dab in the middle of a dream come true.
We think it’s better over there, overlooking the amazing reality right under our feet.
This is a friendly reminder to any of us who might be thinking it’s better over there: habits of striving do not lead to a fulfilling life.
Conscious creators know a powerful way to align with our next dream is to love what we’ve already got. But some are nervous that if we signal satisfaction with current reality it won’t get better. When in reality it’s the exact opposite!
Noticing and appreciating what’s already here doesn’t mean it won’t get better … that’s how it gets better.
I’ve seen (and been) the human version of Clyde many times in many ways:
- sitting on a pile of money (or making plenty) but still striving for more because we believe that will make the difference
- engaging a perpetual cycle of home upgrades, never enjoying progress along the way and believing the next change will make us happy
- constantly looking for the next true love, while overlooking the love that’s been at our door all along
- trying to grow a subscriber/follower list thinking that a bigger audience will be the game-changer we’ve been looking for
- losing just five more pounds, that’s all we’re asking. Five little pounds. And once we’re there (if we ever get there), we think, okay, just five more. That’ll be it.
That cycle of dissatisfaction – that inability to love what’s already here – makes bigger dreams elusive. We’re not a match to better things when we’re dismissive of the amazing things already present.
That’s why it’s worth acknowledging that life is already good, in lots of ways. Until we realize that, it can’t get any better. Our attention to lack and our habit of striving prevents it from doing so.
This is why appreciation is such a popular practice in vibration management circles.
Your invitation today is to take a look around your life and notice where your grass is already lush and fresh and green. It’ll lead you to even better pastures.