It hardly seems that we had a Winter at all - Snowmaker only came by a few times and even then, he didn't stick around for long. I missed my snow!!!

I've been transplanting some of the seedlings into paper cups so that they can continue to grow and not bind up - I can't wait for them to be ready to put out in the garden! I've prepared about 79 seedlings so far. I ran out of cups.

I talked to L. today - she told me that 8 of her painting sold in Knoxville this week. This is after she was accepted into the Bennett Gallery...I am so happy for her! Her star is definitely on the rise now!

She asks me every now and then what it is that I want from my art - and it stops me everytime. I suppose first of all, I would like to have the peace again. I would like to be rid of this feeling of guilt every time I sit down to work on a piece because no one but L. seems to have any belief in what I can do - or support for it. I don't want to work nine to five in some sucky job for minimum wage. I want to share my soul with pencil, chalk and paint. I am an artist. No way around it, if I wanted to get around it.

I tried to get ahold of my dad last night - turns out, it's his weekend off. I would really like to get started working with the horses - they need it. He told me that he would like to breed both Trixie and Athena (it's easier to breed into the Walking Horse industry than to buy into it, in his opinion) but I'd rather get them re-trained first. Neither one is very friendly at this point and Trixie has picked up the nasty habit of kicking. I'd like to get Athena under a saddle...to my knowledge, she's never been properly trained though and she's nearly 5 or 6 now. I told him that I thought that it would be better if we could handle them and have them gentle before we bred them - we don't know what kind of mothers they'd be. They could both turn out to be highly protective of their babies.

...and I'd just love to see what Athena is capable of under saddle - I wonder if she's still got that natural gait? She didn't use to need any artificial enhancements (boots, chains, shoes, etc.) to get that 'big walk' going - and that's what I love about her and Trixie. They both did that. Natural Walkers - they seem to be an increasingly rare thing. Now everyone likes that awful 'squatting' walk that always makes me cringe to see it. The horses never seem comfortable that way - front hooves going as high as they can get them while the back end is going down. They usually have this undescribable 'hitch' in there (but once you see it, you know exactly what I mean) that just looks so uncomfortable to me. It reminds me of what happened to Persian cats - somebody decided that they liked the way a genetic defect looked and now most of the breed has squashed noses.

I still have to do my homework...in the Our Personal History of Touch class, I have to examine my life (in regards to how I was touched by family...not how I'm 'touched' in the head...) from age birth to 5 or 7. Should be interesting. The other homework is in Healing Philosophies and I have to write down my own personal healing philosophy. So far it's this:

• Don't attempt to heal until/unless you're specifically asked.
• Do what is best for the recipient's soul - listen with your own heart and soul and not your head.
• Don't arbitrairily give out potions, recipes or 'how-to' without knowing exact symptoms.

Happy Ostara and Equinox, y'all.