I start each morning in the barn, feeding horses, putting them out to pasture, cleaning stalls, and setting the stalls up with hay and fresh water for when the horses come back inside at night. I head outside with my travel mug of coffee and begin the day, the eager nickers of my horses encourage me to walk faster, they’re hungry.
Horses live in the moment, and they’re outlook is a good reminder for me that I need to live in the moment too. If you’ve never spent time in a barn, let me share a little secret, it’s deeply meditative. While I’m in the barn cleaning stalls I think through the day ahead, have creative ideas (and have a white board where I write them down so they don’t get forgotten), or I think about nothing at all and just go through the motions.
That’s the beauty of mornings spent in the barn. It’s a daily routine that can be whatever I need it to be that day. And it’s true that some mornings I’m more frazzled and in a rush to get to work than I should be. But the routine is the same, and that consistency is a stabilizer in my life that starts each day out with a positive tone.