If everyday was one little life…

Some people would say we really are just a number of days. So everyday should be like one little  life – if we are to get the best out of our days. What should go into these days if money could not dictate its amazingness? Could we make our days more meaningful and more memorable if they were devoid of the ‘all that glitters is gold’ ideas of happiness – those ‘if I won the lotto’ scenarios. I have a feeling – like love – we might be looking for happiness in all the wrong places when money makes up our sign posts. Yes, it’s essential for essentials and not having it makes each day like a lifetime. But should enough be simply enough. Without a lot of it, don’t we become more reliant on the simpler things? And right now your best memories are probably ones that didn’t cost a penny. 

There was a time money was really important to me – it became a constant life goal: to be rich! It even became an attractive characteristic- if someone had money I tended to have more of an interest in them. Yes, cars, cash, and credit cards made up for bad personalities. I surprised myself one day when a boyfriend at the time forgot my birthday and literally flung his credit card at me when he finally got my obvious hints. ‘Buy what you want,’ he grumpily said. My birthday surprise was: it made me sad. I could buy what I wanted and I was terribly sad and what quickly followed was a day when he was driving me to college in a car that turned heads, I spotted a friend of mine getting a lift on the bar of her boyfriend’s bike and I was jealous. Jealous of how happy they looked. And I was miserable. Part of me still thought I could grow immune to the miserableness. How blessed am I that I didn’t. From where I’m looking now – my life is priceless- watching our rescue donkey trying to keep up with two rescued hyper ponies. Hay is my gold and if they are healthy and happy, I am too. And this is where I get off my ‘life platform’ and step onto a neutral one we all share. 

Today I read a post how people are investing in metal collars/leads for their dogs so dog-nappers can’t use a bolt cutter to steal dogs. Yes, we are now experiencing a moral pandemic: what is priceless to you has become a price tag to someone else. You could even get shot or stabbed if you don’t release your pet to these people. As happened Lady Gaga’s dog walker: shot multiple times as he wouldn’t hand over her dogs. It’s telling: more pets being stolen, more people cashing in on the ‘Covid-buck’ by selling their own pets, and microchips being dug out with blades from the backs of stolen pets. And whilst this is about animals I want to be mindful about the increase in calls to domestic abuse organisations and to childline. Yes, something is broken when so many people are not just no longer happy in their homes, they are no longer safe. Till death do us part becomes a desperately sad wish rather than a vow. 

Today was a sad day here as some of the ponies who are part of the ‘Hay not Roses’ feeding initiative were taken away from their herd by their owner. We asked where they were being taken to but there was no exact location given. There never is. One of them is a tiny tot who was very well minded by the herd. He would whinny and run back and forth from them to us, to let them know we had arrived. Another one is a frail filly foal who is so very close to her mother. Pat tried to reason with them that she could do with staying a bit longer as we were trying to build her up. The reply, ‘she’s grand!’ She isn’t and she won’t be unless she gets lots of care. But it’s all about the money and how many horses you have for some people. Why isn’t a few horses enough? Why do you need to fill fields with as many horses as possible? Nobody needs so many horses – like clothes hanging in wardrobes you never wear and you forget about. These are forgotten horses until a sale comes along or a ‘swap’. Yes, the dreaded swap! ‘Anyone got anything to swap for this….’ And you look at the photo of another foal whose eyes try reach through the lens to get a message to someone somewhere ‘help me, I am worth more than a packet of cigarettes or a raffle ticket!’ And then there are the sellers, who take their family pony from a lovely paddock and stable and sell him/her into a world they can not cope with! Sure, the kids are gone to college or have outgrown her/him. They weren’t born into the hard life but the need to make a few quid buys them a forgotten horse label. How can people be so calculated and cruel?  Why don’t you want to know where your pony has gone? Or is the person who pulled your pony from you at the fair enough to tell you what is to come for your family pet?

People give out about ‘nanny states’ – but from what I see – life is beautiful but the world is extremely cruel and that is worse than this Covid pandemic. It will probably kill more people and test so many more. We need minding. A lot of minding. And we need to be mindful – not a mind full of ideas that contribute nothing to your ‘real happiness’ or to others who share your life space. 

I can only speak for myself but there is enough evidence in my life story alone to prove that ‘money definitely does not buy happiness’. I have never had so little but I’ve never been so happy. Here, at Hilltop, we all have enough and with that ‘enough’ fulfilled we don’t have to waste our energy on wanting more or needing more. We just keep it in the day…. one day at a time because tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us.

Mind yourself so you can mind everything else x