Author Archives: Paula Josa-Jones

Jan15

gather?

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Calico Roundup, Jan 4, 2012. Photo by Mike Lorden.

I read of two BLM “gathers” (the new name for cull) of wild mustangs to take place this month.  Pursuing terrified wild Mustangs with helicopters, pushing them, even knocking them down is not a “gather.”  Nor is driving them into chutes where foals are separated from their mothers, where herds are pulled apart and stallions from competing herds are forced to battle in small enclosures while “cowboys” scream and wave plastic bags at them, increasing their terror and panic.  “Gather” is a poisonous euphemism for what is actually happening.  It is brutality.  On our watch.  Your tax dollars at work.

Laura Leigh of Wild Horse Education has been a witness to many of these ugly culls, and currently has a law suit pending against the BLM for their inhumane handling of the Mustang herds.  You can read more about that here.  This is a longer video taken by Laura on January 5 of this year.

If you have been following my blog, you know about Nelson, the Mustang stallion that I have been working with for the past year. Prior to being rescued from slaughter, this was Nelson’s experience.  It has taken me much of this year to build a relationship with him, because he was so sure that anything connected with a human was nothing he wanted to experience.  Most of these horses are not as lucky as Nelson.  Some are adopted.  Many, especially the older stallions like Nelson, end up on a truck bound for slaughter.  Others stand in holding pens knee deep in feces and mud for months on end.

To me, this is not just a horse issue.  This is about who we are, our essential nature, and how that informs the way that we treat each other and our fellow creatures.  Don’t just stand by.  Let this touch your heart.  Make a call, share this blog post.  Be heard.

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Jan14

callings

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Photo:  Jeffrey Anderson, from Flight, with Dillon Paul and Sanne

A horse appeared to me.  It was a horse I had known from some long ago time. Who knows what that long ago was, but the horse was very present, and I could smell the horse, and the horse was very familiar.  It seemed to be someone I know from long ago, and so I felt I knew the horse well.  I was very happy to see it, so happy that tears ran down my cheeks.  Joy Harjo

This week in The Journal I am writing about callings.  I am interested in the difference between a calling and a yearning, between lust and desire.  I have some stories about my own callings, and how they shape what is here now.  I got to thinking about this a number of yeas ago when I read Gregg Levoy’s Callings:  Finding and Following an Authentic Life. 

My post yesterday about the herd also reminded me that callings are usually embodied.  That is what Joy Harjo is talking about.  And a few of you mentioned that not everyone is that clear about how to communicate in an embodied way. 

Actually, that is a major theme of my online class beginning next week:  Breaking into Blossom.  The subtitle of the class is “moving into an improvisational life,” and so much of that, in my experience, is about being fully present in an embodied way – deep listening with the body.  My intention is that by learning to live more intentionally and improvisationally, and be more consciously embodied, you will find new and delicious ways of experiencing/approaching work and play.  

I hope you will join us.  You can register here.

Jan14

the herd

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I went to see Nelson, and toward the end of our time together, my friend came down to say hello.  As she and I stood outside his paddock, he hung out with us, nuzzling the fence, poking his nose through – participating in our conversation.

Nelson is a lonely stallion.  He does not get to hang out with a herd.  In captivity, we usually isolate stallions because they can hurt each other.  We don’t want them to work out their territorial, sexual stuff on our watch.  So for the time being, we humans are his herd.

I have been thinking about why I am so much more comfortable with an equine herd or a dog pack than I am with most human herds.  Maybe it is because I feel so clearly the lack of agenda or concealed intent with the horses and dogs.  Maybe it is that as a dancer, movement and touch are my first language, and that is where the horses live.  Language is not weaponized, and the communication feels more honest.

It is not always simple.  I sometimes have to spend a lot of time parsing what my Andalusian gelding Amadeo is saying.  He is a flighty boy, and like some humans, his language (a hoof, his teeth) sometimes fly out before he has really thought things through.  Nelson is more straightforward, more willing to tell it like it is.

I am also thinking about what is essential to me in a day.  What I come up with first is four legs and a soft nose.

What about you?

Jan13

beautiful

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Ngonda Badila is Lady Moon.  Her song, Speak to the Light, is one of the most lovely pieces of music that I have ever heard.  She sings it during the performance of Xmalia, the show created by C. Ryder Cooley.

The first time I heard it, I did not think that the sound was coming out of a human body, it was so etheric, so wildly beautiful.  When I watched her performance last weekend with Ryder on trapeze, it moved me to tears.

You can listen to it online, but better still, you can see and hear Lady Moon in person at the upcoming MCLA performance of Xmalia on January 25 at 7:30 in North Adams, MA.

 postscript:  This week The Journal is about callings.  How we feel them, and a few ragged ones of my own.  Breaking into Blossom starts next week.  This is an online class about moving into an improvisational life, about lessening the commute between what you think of as creative and everything else.  I hope you will join us.  You can register here.