Horses, Temples & Gratitude.
Horseback riding to Habu Temple & some reflections.
One of the many benefits of travel, which all fellow travelers know, is the opportunity for totally new and amazing experiences. Today Sarah, who I met through a women’s travel group on Facebook (!) gifted me the opportunity to ride horses to Habu Temple.
I’ve arrived back in Luxor after spending a month re-setting in Hurghada, and Sarah and I decided to spend some time together again since we had such a great time on Thanksgiving. I visited Habu Temple with my retreat group back in November, but getting to ride a horse there was a whole different, magical experience! We rode through the green fields on the West Bank of Luxor with the Thebes mountains watching over us, and a hot air balloon overhead.. Wow. Just wow.
Sarah grew up riding horses and is now part of the beautiful Egyptian family who owns Luxor Stables. The horses are well loved, well fed, and well respected. If you are ever in Luxor and want to ride horses- they are the family to contact. Sarah took me all around the farm yesterday to visit with the animals - the stables are beautiful.
Sarah is SO AMAZING and chose the most calm, stable horse for me, as this was only my second time ever being on a horse. She also taught me how to communicate with the horse & guide her in the right direction (which thankfully my friend
had also taught me before coming to Egypt!) and is just an awesome person to spend time with. I’m sooo grateful to social media for allowing connections like this to happen!I got to ride Rhonda, a sweet older horse who was SO CHILL. Sarah’s horse was throwing a little bit of a hissy fit because he wasn’t in the front of the herd and I was a little concerned that it would cause Rhonda to get worked up, but she could not have been less bothered. Thank GOD. Sarah has been riding since she was very young, so handling her horse was not a problem for her, but if Rhonda had gotten worked up.. I don’t know what I would have done. Rhonda was an angel through the whole ride there & back!
Habu Temple has the most prominent presence of my main man Anubis that I have seen in any of the temples. There are 3 GIANT depictions of him all next to each other. I wish I knew the story behind this particular scene, but I don’t. Habu also has some of the most beautifully preserved & deepest cartouches I have seen anywhere. The temple is stunning. There is a small side-temple of Amun-Ra, which I was drawn to enter both times I’ve been here. Unfortunatey, they are working inside the temple so visitors are not allowed in- but there is something special in there. I can feel it. There is reasonable speculation that the physical body of Amun-Ra, the one God who was preserved from the original Ogdoad (the 8 primordial energies of creation that precede all of the popular Egyptian Gods & Goddesses, was actually buried here. I think there’s something to that…
After our ride and a quick visit to the temple, Sarah invited me to stay for lunch which I gratefully accepted. Let me tell you.. the food that is made inside the home of an Egyptian family is SOMETHING ELSE. My goodness! So fresh, so delicious, and in just 2 days with Sarah I have learned about 4 different Egyptian foods I had never heard of being here for over 4 months. I am so impressed with the commitment to preparing fresh meals every day, the togetherness of family that is present here, the ADORATION of children, and the genuine desire the children to be of service in the home. They are so eager to help- and this is something that seems to be ingrained in the Egyptian culture as a whole. There is a sense of community & service to one another and to family that exists here that just is not present in the U.S. I am not saying one way is better than the other, I am just making observations.
This is my second time back in Luxor after having spent a whole month here in October/November. After settling in Hurghada, it became very clear to me that the entire time I had been in Luxor I was in fight/flight/freeze mode. Hurghada afforded me the ease to settle back into myself, and arriving in Luxor this time, I am feeling much more open to the energies present in the land. It feels good. I needed the space to be cracked open and vulnerable, and now here I am. I feel like I am receiving some juicy downloads that will reveal themselves to my conscious mind in due time.
I am so grateful to Luxor. I am so grateful to Hurghada. I am so grateful to Sarah. I am so grateful to Egypt. I am so grateful to all of the beautiful humans I have met along my journey so far, and to all of those I haven’t met yet. I am so grateful for those of you at home who have been supporting me in various ways and cheering me on. I am so grateful to my clients, current and future, who continue to make this journey possible for me. I am just so grateful.
God, what a beautiful life I am living. I am grateful to my Soul for calling me to take this leap. And I am grateful to my stubborn heart for insisting on going despite the terror I felt the months leading up to leaving. I am grateful for the freedom to travel.
I Am Grateful. Amen.