We awake to our world wrapped in a swathe of white.  And I consider how familiar I am with this.  How our world is, has been, for nearly half my days here.  A frequent view.  Almost expected.  As expected as seeing horses from the kitchen window as I sit and savor my morning coffee.  As expected as smelling their sweet musty scent on my hands, finding their hairs clinging to every shirt and sweater, and hearing their heavy footsteps upon frozen ground as they run to greet me in the morning.

And now they are there.  Completing my view. Fulfilling my life. I have missed them in ways I do not quite understand but may come to realize as I spend more time with them again. Feeding, training, first rides of the season, polishing tack, brushing off their winter coats and allowing their fresh spring sheen to surface.  Familiar as close friends or family.  Those I choose to have around.  Each with such a great variation of character, defining myself through relationships with each.

I must head back out to work now.  Boxes still unpacked, shelves calling to be filled, a world in the process of returning to what I expect it to be.  Same as it was?  No, thank you.  Better indeed. For I am not fool enough to hold onto what was, but am learning to carry with me what I chose as I forge my future with those stones from the past I care to stack into the foundation I am building for the future.