Saddle Up

Shed the Skin. Saddle the Wind.

Saddle your dreams before you ride 'em

(Mary Webb)

Stop attacking

the past versions

of you.

Stop clinging

to them,

too.

They were not

mistakes.

They were

iterations.

They were

the original

apprentices

of your soul.

Learning

in the dark,

paying

in full,

improvising

with what they had.

They did

their best

at the time,

and they got you

here.

But not further.

This is

the last lesson

of the Snake:

shed the old skin

without contempt.

Not with violence.

With reverence.

Be amazed

at the progress

you’ve made.

At how much

you’ve grown.

At the tenderness

you can now hold

where you once

only knew armor.

Recognise what those earlier selves gave you:

their hunger,

their resilience,

their prayers,

their survival.

Thank them.

Bless them.

And then,

release them.

Because the past is sacred

only when it becomes compost.

If you keep rehearsing yesterday,

tomorrow can’t enter.

Your past self

did not lack worth

in any way.

It is simply not fit

for what comes next.

What comes next

is not a shedding,

it is a gallop.

The Horse is here,

in motion,

with courage,

momentum,

and the holy insistence

of forward movement.

The Horse does not carry old skins.

The Horse carries fire in the chest

and horizon in the eyes.

So let the old self.

Let it rest.

Let it remain honored.

Time for a renewed self

Let it be.

Let it fly with the wind.

Gratitude brings closure

to the previous chapter.

Courage turns the opening page

for what comes next.

Yo lo Creo/

I believe, and so it is

To accompany Saddle Up,

here is "A Horse with No Name"

by America and George Martin: