The Wishing Tree

I repeatedly asked my co-teacher and friend Gretchen, “Why are you in such a rush?” She often replied the exact same way, “I just know what I want and what I don’t want and I don’t want to waste any more time.”

On a cold and crisp winter’s day under a clear blue sky, my husband took a photo of us crunching through the ice and snow toward the “Wishing Tree.” This would be Gretchen’s last winter. Her young children had an idea of what they wanted to wish for. Her husband and I definitely did.

Gretchen was a passionate person with a precise personality. She was fond of saying, “I have a Healthy dose of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), but in my mind, it should be called CDO. You know, alphabetically!” I have probably requoted this phrase of hers dozens of times from settings as vast as dinner parties to faculty meetings. In 2016, Gretchen received honors as the Peruvian Park Teacher of the Year, Canyons School District Teacher of the Year and 2nd runner up for Utah State Teacher of the Year. Gretchen believed that teaching was not just about learning information. Her goal was to teach the whole person, and she did!

Adjacent to the Wishing Tree located on an elk migration reserve in Park City is the Wild Heart Sanctuary.The sanctuary is home to eight wild horses, a.k.a. the “Infinity Herd,” who were rescued from BLM roundups. They are now cared for by Sonya Richins, the sanctuary’s founder. Or, do they care for her? There is a mutual caretaking on the grounds of the Sanctuary. Her mission is to love the horses and help educate people about the abuse wild horses suffer.

Wild Heart Sanctuary regularly brings in visitors, from cancer survivors to suicide-risk youths, who find immense personal transformations and heart connection with the horses. Although she doesn’t claim they do any specific curing of ailments, Richins is full of stories about Noble Moon, the wisest healer of the bunch, and the other horses, breathing onto tumors or pain centers and subsequent miraculous recoveries.

Horses As Healers, Hope in the Saddle, Horse Therapy are just a few programs that work with people experiencing anxiety, PTSD, a cancer diagnosis, and much more.

How? Why?

Horses have been used in Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) since the early 1970s. In equine-facilitated psychotherapy, interacting with horses helps clients explore their feelings. Keenly aware of emotional energies, horses sense what we're feeling, sometimes better than we do. Research has confirmed many equine therapy benefits. It lowers your blood pressure and heart rate, alleviates stress and reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression. Equine therapy also helps people struggling with addictions or mental illness. There are several life skills that a horse teaches better than a person.

“What if the management of time was the biggest concern, and not the diagnosis?”

There, I said it. But it’s true!

I’ve taken students who had a cancer or a lupus diagnosis but somehow, this piece of their life was not the focus of their attention. It was the management, measurement and quality of time that was their focal point. Altering timelines to be able to ‘fit everything in’ captured their mind and controlled their thinking.

I’ve taken many groups and individuals to Wild Heart Sanctuary, not all of them with a specific diagnosis, but all needed a visit from the horses. Sonya’s horses are rescued wild mustangs who live happily at the Sanctuary. No one rides these horses, instead they offer another purpose: Horse Medicine. They are four-legged shamans who somehow know their purpose and don’t waste any time doing it.

Yoga for Wellness in collaboration with Wild Heart Sanctuary and Artist Educator Laura Wilson have organized a Seasonal Series of workshops beginning this Fall on October 23rd. Complete with a full-day of activities appropriately titled, “HAY Workshop” (Get it? Horses-Art-Yoga, HAY really is for horses!). With a vegan meal and art supplies included, participants will be able to practice presence, express through art, and heal with horses. This Seasonal Series is open for ALL PEOPLE, no diagnosis of any kind required!

A guaranteed magical event! Sonya’s home and the Horses bring comfort to you. Under Laura’s guidance, her teaching will pull out the inner artist within. All of this bookend with a yoga practice of breathwork and restorative power opening and closing our workshop.

I read once that there are three elements of Magical Realism, beginning with a Realistic Setting. Upon entering Wild Heart Sanctuary, familiarity without full-knowing will occur. At the end of the road sits a beautiful ranch home; a realistic setting yet, what awaits are Magical Moments (this is the second element). The third element is simply Limited Information. The intention of our HAY workshops is to NOT provide all the answers, but simply provide the elements of magic.

I have seen the Wishing Tree throughout each season; each time, I am reminded of my friend, Gretchen. When she taught in her classroom, she would teach a program called the Eight Keys of Excellence and they were her central guiding themes. More than just professional tools, she took them to heart and lived them: "This Is It!" She and her students would proclaim, sing and dance each and every morning. “Make the most of the present as this is all that really counts” she would remind them. “Act with integrity, speak with good purpose, embrace failure and learn from it, take ownership of your actions, demonstrate commitment, allow for flexibility, and, strive for balance with mindful consideration of yourself and others as you make your choices about how to spend your time and energy — focusing on what is most meaningful and fulfilling.”

When she was not in her classroom, I still sensed these guiding principles directing her life during times of play while engaging with her children in their playroom or during conversational times while preparing a meal for my husband and I. “This is It!” was a message she still wanted to convey. She wanted us to take notice of now. Covertly, however, there was also this underlying urgency of time that should never be wasted.

Her compassion as a teacher and friend shall never be wasted and are fully integrated into my own teachings as a yoga instructor and school teacher. Similar to the Eight Limbs of Yoga, Gretchen’s Keys of Excellence reflect my yogic philosophy. These eight steps basically act as guidelines on how to live a meaningful and purposeful life.

I will miss my friend and her “CDO” for the remaining years of my life. As we encircled the Wishing Tree the prescribed 10 times, I heard her children say aloud, “I want a black dog, I want a black dog, I want a black dog”. Gretchen, her husband and I walked around 10 times too, with wishes perhaps more subtle but with passion just the same. I still feel her presence around me. “She is still teaching” I tell my husband, “Just more Universally now.” He nods. He knows too.

Now, when I visit Gretchen’s family, I knock on their door to hear the running footsteps of two children and the playful barking of their new black dog.