Today I attended the one day Sally Swift celebration in Brattleboro, Vermont. Approximately 15 people were in attendance. All women. I have not yet met any Centered Riders who are male. Colleen, who I am staying with at the Colonial Motel, says that there are four male members.

First thing that I noticed was that I was under dressed. Every single woman except for me was wearing a necklace. I do not know if this an east coast, or an older woman thing, but I felt the absence of self-adornment. Second thing I noticed was that it was an older crowd. Third thing that I noticed was that Colleen and I were the only Level 1s in attendance.

The meeting was okay. There was lots of socializing, a great lunch, a great birthday cake (this was Sally’s 104th). I felt a bit out of place – my jokes did not go over well at all. The one saving grace was meeting up with Susan Harris. Colleen and I had breakfast with her in the a.m. She gave me a beautiful tie dye tee shirt – she said that she came up with the design and her sister did the logo. It may be one of a kind.

After the lengthy meeting (we had to be out of the banquet room at 4 p.m.) I went with Susan to the Cheshire Tack shop in Keene, NH. It was the largest tack shop I had ever been in. I like tack shops, but I felt overwhelmed. I purchased a pair of gloves, a bit for Tyra, and a Mark Rashid book. Susan and I ended up in the book area, where there were chairs and mainly talked horse books.

As in the past, I aspire to be like her. Her graciousness and generosity saved the day for me because she made me feel welcome in what was an unfamiliar and close knit community. I hope that someday, in some way, I can do the same for others. Susan is not at all an opportunist. Rather she is genuinely interested in what others have to say and is actually really centered. I have never heard anyone say a bad word about her.

It was also a treat meeting Mary Trafford, who for nearly two years now has been my Centered Riding pen pal. She is a very steady eddy person – and I instantly liked her partner, Sue. We did not get to talk much because so much was going on, but I will be doing the creativity workshop with her next Friday and Saturday.

It always interests me how horse people are so obsessive, myself included. Why is this? In this case, there was not, at the meeting, a lot of talk about horses per say, but rather about Centered Riding.

Next: 114. 4/25/17: Duly Noted