T,T, and K Ranch

Robin Williams as the American Flag

I’ve been having trouble with my pony and his expression, his physical and mental expression. And WHOAH, last night I had a light bulb moment. Like, I already knew this, but I never really practiced it or even thought about it…… What was MY mental and physical expression when I was around my horse?

When I’m really concentrating, I tend to have that ‘resting b*%ch face’. Scowling and what not. Probably look like I’m ready to murder someone. I don’t even realize I’m doing it. So that’s what I worked on. Changing my expression. AND WHAT DO YOU KNOW. My horse started to physically relax, and you could see his little brain starting to relax as well.

I fixed my expression to a ‘happy-to-be-there-I’m-so-thankful-for-everything’ expression. The tension left my body(it was pretty tight) I was moving more softly, in turn, causing my horse to become a mirror of me.

I can tell you that that was probably one of the best rides I’ve had in a long time. It wasn’t because I needed to work on him, I needed to put most of my focus on myself and what I was doing.

I guess my other animals could feel this change in me, because our new yearling bull let me walk up to him and give him an itch, and my she-cat from hell who only so much as looks at me when it’s food time, cuddled up to me, and fell asleep purring beside me.

Our society is full of traditions that we take into consideration only at specific dates in the calendar. These include Mother’s Day, International Women’s day, Father’s day, Victory Day, and many more. Once a year the society suddenly remembers that it has moms, which did an incredible job of growing up in this society, or fathers, who are support and protection of a family. Once in a year, the society treats mothers, women, fathers as queens and kings, but then forgets until the end of the day. It is also a good opportunity to post a story to Instagram with your mom, saying some kind words, and get the hype on being a nice daughter… But it ends quite fast. At the end of the day, everything will be back to usual.

The same thing goes with Victory day. On the 9th of May in 1945, World War II ended, and people finally could sleep in peace. Victory day has a deep meaning behind it - this day exists for everyone in the world to remember the horror of war, remember the relatives who died for you to be able to live in peace. We have to remember that, no matter what, we cannot repeat it.

Nevertheless, after some time, this meaning got away, and Victory day turned into another opportunity for hype. Once in a year we watch parades of military technologies, we invite veterans to the events, greet them, provide “victory” discounts, treat them like heroes. We post to Instagram or Facebook about it, post photos with veterans. The coolest people put stickers on cars… Once in a year, we remember that veterans exist.

But after May 9th, everything is back. We forget about veterans and treat them as no one. Many veterans struggle from attacks or flashbacks from the war, some of them leave behind the poverty line. Some of them have no one to ask to go for groceries or pay for bills, as pension is too low, that the veteran cannot allow the basic needs. However, instead of helping veterans, at least once a year, we shoot fireworks, spend thousands of dollars on parades, even merch. We read poems, dance, sing - and invite veterans to these for them to recall the horrors of the war.

Our grandmothers and grandfathers fought for us. They died for a peaceful future. They survived to see a nicer world without war. They are the real heroes that survived hell, and we remember about the heroes once in a year. For a hype.