Oh, what a lovely morning it was--clear skies, and warm sun, and fresh breeze.  And the staff and almost all of this week's seminar participants--probably 45 or 50 people--gathered after breakfast at the corral to dedicate Emmie's Trail Course.  In gratitude for Em and for the contributions made to Ring Lake Ranch in her memory, they have named the trail course, an obstacle course for horse and rider, for Emmie.  The rider fetches the mail out of the mailbox, rides it over hill and dale, rock and log (the intrepid get a nice jump over the log), past the petroglyphs and up the cliff and through the puddle and drop the mail in the scarecrow's front pocket, then back into the corral.  As part of the dedication, the whole crowd of us walked the course behind Julie, Emmie's favorite horse, whom Lara led through the obstacles.  One lovely participant played the wood flute, another led us in a hymn, the spirits were invoked and thanked for the gift of Emmie's life, and it was an honor to be here and to have known and loved her.

I thought again of the miracle of loving community, who holds and weeps and laughs and heals with us.  Wish that you all could have been with us this morning.  This afternoon, the riders have laughed and huffed and cajoled and pressured their horses through the trail course with much adventure and joking and horsey good-naturedness.  It is a blessed place to be.  In fact, we have decided to remain at Ring Lake another 5 days where some can rest a little more (okay, where I can rest a little more) and not do quite so much driving through the southwest  and camp-pitching as we had originally planned.  We'll catch Bryce Canyon and Zion and those wonderful places on another trip, and stay in this healing place just awhile longer.

Much love on this Friday afternoon.

Amy