Gypsy

This is book one of a two book tribute to a true Angel....An Angel, that came into my world during a period of several great voids created by trajectory altering events....This Angel, single handedly : ) influenced my life with her own form of peace, harmony, and adventure....She stirred feelings in me that were dormant and occupied spaces in my soul and time that were vacant.... She didn't fill the voids created by those events (that's not possible), but she did create mountains that helped level the scales.... In 2008, a good friend introduced me to this six year old Angel carrying the name of Ginger....Not a bad name at all, but my daughter, Winona, and I settled on the name Gypsy, which turned out to be perfect....It was love at first sight for me....Not sure what it was for her, but I can tell you that she did things early on and throughout our relationship that made me know, she had my 6 and that a special bond was being created.... With her, she brought adrenaline, wonderment, beauty, and a spicy attitude that forged with my heart and soul a relationship filled with respect, love, and gratitude .... Ironically, I started riding at six years of age.... Although it was relatively brief, lessons for maybe a year, it was the beginning of something that has truly impacted my life and stirred emotions in me that are difficult, if not impossible, to describe.... Throughout my life, I rode periodically, but riding never became a priority, because of my passion for what was to become my career and my family.... Life happened; enter the Angel to be named Gypsy, and the beginning for the makings of this book.... I soon began taking pictures of the many rides we went on.... We rode alone more than we did with friends or groups on trail rides.... Late night rides were common, day rides the norm, and trips to see new scenery always in planning.... Each ride, regardless of location or destination, was filled with something new, if only the timing and lighting of the day, the weather and changes of each season, or who or what we encountered.... It is not possible for me to count the hundreds and hundreds of hours we spent trying to agree on her ear position to take, what I thought, was a beautiful picture.... Sometimes, I thought maybe she didn't cooperate because she enjoyed the view as much as I did and just wanted to stay a little longer....or.... and most likely.... she was simply making sure I knew who was truly in charge of our relationship.... Our journey came to an unexpected end at 19:44 Thursday, August 29, 2024 (we had planned to ride out alone in Oxford the next day)....It was an enlightening journey that spanned sixteen spiritual years, each of which was chocked full of incredible memories....She also left behind many memories and smiles to countless people in the form of first rides, being seen in random places, or just her presence in the pasture....A large piece of my heart and soul died that day, but that which remains will forever be grateful for the peace and harmony she brought into my world.... This tribute contains just a few of the many thousands of pictures taken behind her ears....Not wanting words to cloud any interpretation of what is being seen and/or felt, I chose not to write captions in this tribute.... Tribute two will have more writing and be more dynamic in nature.... It will show a larger range of experiences we had in our sixteen year journey.... As for this tribute, these pictures truly move me when I see them, but they do not do justice the beauty nor the feelings that accompanied each moment they were taken....It is however, my sincere hope that in some way they bring you a smile and/or emotion as you settle into my saddle, ride Gypsy, and see just a sample of what I was so blessed to experience Behind the Ears of a Savior....