On the subject of hugs

The last time I went to the Diesel gathering, I had an excellent conversation with a couple of people (give yourself credit if you want it) on the subject of hugging.  I do not claim that the idea presented herein are all original to me, only that I think it's worth repeating. 

It it's fullest form, a hug is the act of giving one full and complete attention to the person being hugged.  It is a way of saying, right here, right now, for this moment in time, nothing else matters more than this interaction.  You are of utmost importance to me. 
Yes, there are plenty of hugs that don't say that.  There's the 'obligatory' hug to aunt Nellie, that we only see once a year, and maybe we don't want to hug at all.  There's the 'honey I'm home, when is dinner' hug.
I have found, more and more, that as I give and receive full attention hugs, it gets harder and harder to give any other kind.  And as I transform the 'honey I'm home' and 'aunt Nellie' hugs into real hugs, I find that usually they are returned with similar feeling.  It is possible, by example, to change the way people direct their attention.  By paying them the complement of a full attention hug, not only do they feel better Now, but they gain the ability to spread that good feeling by hugging others the same way.  So what comes around really does go around. 

Riding Log

Beautiful Day! Alice and I took Trump and Minnie out.  Past the goats.  Goats?  No problem with goats.  No problem with the bridge.  So there's this woods road that the snowmobiles have packed down pretty well.  I wanted to explore it.  Well, Trump was fine. Calm, forward, no problem.  Minnie, whom I was riding, was no such angel.  I don't know if she wanted to gallop or what, but jig, jig, snatch the reins, toss head...  for a loooong time.  She worked a lot harder than she had to.  Our path brought us out on a road on the other side of town, and we came back on roads, about 3 miles, the whole trip was probably 5 miles, in about an hour.  Minnie settles a bit once back on the pavement, and even went first for a short way.  She did not have anxiety about the automobiles on the main road either, some of which did not swing out around us and kept going at 45pmh, even though the road is posted at 35 there.  By the time we got home, a lot of her nervous sweat from the woods road had dried, and she was calm. Or at least too tired to argue about anything.  So was this fun? would I do it again? Of Course I Would!

Cow uglies

Got a call from the tenant who lives where I keep my cattle: one of them had a "bloody face".  I collected my first-aid stuff, and the anal immobilizer, and went down there.  Sure enough, there was nastiness.  It looked like the halter had been on too tight, or maybe she had gotten the top of the nose caught in something, but the under-chin control chain had bit into the flesh, and stayed there.  It's a hard place to see on a casual check, so I can see how we've missed it for a while.  So the cow was caught in the head gate and I pulled off the halter.  Yech.  Lots of proud flesh around the site, which wanted to hold the halter, but it bled well once the halter was out.  This was my first test of the anal immobilizer, and it worked.  I was able to do a good cleaning, ascertain that there is no major infection and spray it with providine.  She will have an ugly chin for the rest of her life, but I don't think it's worth cutting the proud flesh and sewing the wound.  The vet is already scheduled for Monday for vaccinations, so I'll have him look at it then. 

33 question meme

I answered this in roozle's journal. So here it is. do what you will.

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