The Appaloosa
The memory of this life evolved over several years but began when I was 12 years old when I entered 7th grade in middle school, before I knew what a past life was, and has been with me daily all of my life.
During the first days of the school year, our class was introduced to the library in our history class, because we would be studying different times in history. The librarian arbitrarily passed out an encyclopedia for each student. It was very random. I ended up with a red colored volume F-G-H. I began looking through the book and noticed that the images seemed to be amazing. As I skimmed the book I soon found myself in the horse section. I slowly turned a certain page that contained the image of an appaloosa horse, immediately I was frozen in place. My eyes scanned every inch of the amazing horse.
The color was mesmerizing. It was a dark bay body color, with a white blanket from the waist back, with black spots. Looking over the horse I took a deep breath. It caused a lovely sensation of recognition to run over me. My first experience with creepy crawlies soon covered my arms with goosebumps. I smiled enjoying the experience and feeling the emotions that the horse caused in me, and then in a snap the class was over. Books were closed and returned to shelves. I wrote down the page number, 147, and returned my book to the shelf, joined the other classmates in line and followed them back to class.
When school was over I walked home thinking about the horse. The perspective I was experiencing was as if I was riding the horse. I could look down his neck I could see through his ears. It was this perspective that would return time after time, and how I first experienced the appaloosa, as I soon called him. That night when I went to bed my mind drifted as I fell asleep and I saw myself riding the horse and developing a friendship. The following day I eagerly went to school to visit the library and the appaloosa in the encyclopedia. It was wonderful and as welcoming as it had been the day before.
The next night the horse visited me in a dream. I was standing in a meadow near a stream, he comes walking towards me, and he was so majestic.
At school whenever I had an opportunity, during lunch or recess, I would go to sit in the library, open the encyclopedia and look lovingly at this horse. I soon knew every inch of him. He was mine. I just knew it.
Gradually each night my relationship with the appaloosa developed and we would ride together as I fell asleep.
Soon I could feel every inch of his muscles underneath me. I was an Indian brave riding in no clothing, just his body and mine. It was as if we were one. Just him and I. Our lives had intersected and joined.
No bridle.
No Saddle.
No reins.
Just my feet instructing him as we rode.
On one night we ran with the wind in our hair, as fast as the horse was capable of. Each stride took us faster and faster as we raced across the prairie. This moment in time would be repeated thousands of times during my current life.
Whenever I needed to calm down my mind, fall sleep, or focus, I would let this amazing memory of him and I running together would heal my mental state. Even today, I can easily drift into the moment of wind in my hair and his stride underneath me, running as one. Sublime.
As I aged the tribe trusted me with monitoring a certain area of the tribal lands. I developed the route that we rode every day to keep the tribe safe. When needed, my horse was fast and we often outran the wind.
I carried a small leather pouch around my waist for carrying small bits of food; meat bits, seeds, herbs, dried berries, bits with tiny amounts herbs with honey dried on were my favorite.
I would often share with my horse, when we were out on patrol, usually when we stopped for a drink of water.
I was male and had one of the best bodies I ever had in any lifetime. I was slim, but strong with adequate muscling. I was very athletic and could run fast, and my arrow skills were excellent. I remember sitting on my horse, overlooking the tribal lands below my point of on the ridge and I put my open hand on my chest. My chest is wide and strong. I can feel my heart beating.
The memory of my horse coming into my life happened after a challenging vision quest when I was around 14. The quest required me to use all of my skills. The peyote opened the heavens for me to see like a road map to life. It changed me. I was different when it was over. My horse was my next step in my journey of manhood. He was a welcome friend and confidant. Also fire, I could talk to fire after the vision quest, it could have been the peyote, but it talked to me and became a friend.
I had a long enjoyable life, eventually I married and had a daughter. By the end of my life I became Chief and wore an amazing headdress during ceremonies. I was happy and it seemed like this was a quiet resting life. I don’t remember any of my end of life details, which usually means that it was peaceful, maybe by old age.
However, the story doesn’t end here, typical of how spirituality takes you in the exact direction that you need to go for growth opportunities, I was led to a new spiritual friend. When many years later I was at an event sitting in a large group. While we waited for the event to start, we sat in a large circle and a conversation began.
As each person shared we worked our way around the circle introducing ourselves and telling our personal story or whatever we wanted to share with the group. My eye was drawn to a woman, my age, sitting directly across from me. She caught my attention, and something about her made me want to pay close attention to her story.
When it was her turn, it wasn’t so much what she said, but it was her energy, she felt so inviting to me, as if we were already friends. Her accent was British. She spoke a bit about her educational background and her current husband.
I can’t explain it, because I seldom can, but I knew her. As I stared into her eyes, they called to me, drenching me in awareness. At the end of the day, I decided to talk with her. l wove my way through the crowd to catch up with her. She looked at me smiling and gave a classic European hug, meaning a hug on each side.
Her touch shot electricity through me.
We exchanged phone numbers and as she started to walk away
I asked, “do I know you from somewhere? Have we ever met?”
She laughed and said I feel exactly the same.
My mind was racing, but, it would be impossible, our paths had ever crossed. We were from opposite sides of the world. At the last moment before we parted, she said I hope that you don’t think that I’m crazy, but I would really love to show you something that means the world to me.
I said I would love to see it. Where is it?
She said for some reason, I brought it with me, I don’t know why, but before I left home I just felt like it would be important to bring it with me today.
Now she had my attention.
“Please show it to me”, I said, as I followed her over to her car and stopped at the trunk. She smiled at me and her blue eyes kind of twinkled, as she said, “please don’t think that I’m crazy”.
I assured her that I would not as she popped the trunk open. As it began to rise, I stepped closer and watched as it revealed a stunning authentic Indian chief’s headdress.
It was magnificent, a very old antique and could have been a carbon copy of the one that I used to wear so long ago. It took my breath away. I said oh my gosh, where did you get this? and she said I found it in an old antique store a long time ago.
She said, “it is my prized possession, and this might sound strange, but I believe it belongs to my family from long ago”.
There was nothing I could say because I was standing grinning ear to ear, absolutely stunned by the beauty and the creepy crawlies that were all over me.
I realized with great joy that she was my wife. I had missed her so. She had been drawn to the headdress, I didn’t reveal my relationship with her, I am hoping she will remember on her own. But either way, we recognized each other against all odds of finding each other on this planet.
The Universe is truly amazing.