Appreciating Mist

It's a small thing, really, but when I was cleaning Tiki's stall this morning, there was a gentle mist rolling in from the field. She stood with her head hanging out over the wheelbarrow, observing the world around her while I picked her and Mona's stall out as Mona munched on her breakfast. Being only a month old, Tiki still has very little interest in the vittles that Mom will just about tear a stall apart for every morning. She and I have a solemn pact worked out when it comes to stall pickout time in the morning--she is allowed to casually look around the barn with her head out of the stall (a rare treat) as long as she stands quietly at the wheelbarrow. No escape attempts are tolerated. If I see her body tense or her little back legs start to come under her like she's thinking about a flying leap (something she tried only ONCE) I come flying at her with the pitchfork tines pointed at her chest, screaming like a banshee, so fast it makes her head spin. So, as long as she's quiet and relaxed, we enjoy some relaxed bonding time together in the morning. Me, picking her stall out and listening to the birds, and her, poking her head over the wheelbarrow, watching the cats and looking outside. Occasionally the siren song of the outside world is drowned out by her desire to follow me around the stall like a dog and play with me while I clean :-) This morning, though, she was looking particularly pensive as she stared into the field. I realized as I was removing the wheelbarrow from the front of the stall and stood next to her that she was staring at the mist rolling in from the field. She had never seen anything like that before and was just fascinated by the movement in the fog as it swirled. I stood quietly next to her for a few minutes, taking in the sight, and listening to Pepper lapping up water from her water bowl in the otherwise eerily silent barn and realized that my friend was right. A big part of my journey with Tiki is to see things through her eyes for the first time, slow down, and appreciate the wonder of her world around me.