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Don’t Expect a Horse to Climb a Tree: And Other Tales of Misguided Expectations

Let’s get one thing straight: a horse isn’t climbing a tree anytime soon. Not today, not tomorrow, not even if you bribe it with organic apples and serenade it with Taylor Swift’s latest album. A horse is built to gallop across fields, not swing from branches like a lemur. And yet we do love to expect the improbable.

We walk around frustrated, shaking our heads, because someone isn’t doing something that was never in their wheelhouse to begin with. I saw a post recently on LinkedIn that hit home: not all activists, changemakers, or passionate souls have to champion the same issue. There’s room for everyone at the table. And maybe even some standing room by the snack bar.

Here’s the thing: we’re all wired differently. You wouldn’t expect a violinist to nail a tuba solo, so why expect someone whose gift is building community to also decode complex economic policy before lunch? Or better yet, why expect your emotionally intuitive friend to suddenly be a logistics guru? That’s not their jam. They’re too busy sensing your vibe shift from across the room.

In the world of talent and purpose, the key is not to force horses into treetops but to let each creature run, fly, climb, or swim in their element. You don’t need 100 people screaming about the same thing in the same way. You need 100 people each lending their unique voice to the symphony of change. One might paint murals. One might testify in front of Congress. One might quietly comfort someone who needs it most. All of them? Essential.

So the next time you’re about to shake your head because someone isn’t meeting your expectations ask yourself: am I asking this horse to climb a tree?

Better yet, let the tree climbers climb, the gallopers gallop, and the thinkers think. There’s enough room in this world for all of us to do our thing.

Even if your thing is blogging about horses on a random Thursday.

2 replies »

  1. iNDeeD Dear Miriam

    All ‘Forrest Gump Moments’

    Are not the Same And True it Would
    Practically Be A ‘Supernatural One” if
    A ‘Horse Could Climb A Tree’ Although

    It’s True ‘They’ as ‘Omen’ Called me ‘Bird Legs’
    In Middle School And Eventually Leg Pressing
    1540 Pounds 12 Reps Just Warming Up at the
    Beginning of a 3 Hour Work-Out at the Military
    Gym Like the One Last Night Not Finishing till After

    Midnight Brings Enough Strength to Float in Balance
    Of Flow In Moving Meditation Dance on Terrestrial Smooth

    Dance Floors
    Almost Like
    Sam Walton
    Built Those
    Dance Floors for
    me to Use in Almost
    Any City i Might Travel Next Hehe

    It’s True Why Make Any Effort at all
    in Life If We Don’t Have the Ability
    To Bring a Smile to Another

    Human Being With the
    Human Efforts We

    Make in Life

    Anyway i Love to See
    The Forrest Gump Moments
    Others Share Free Like Yesterday
    Afternoon at ‘Wendys’ Wow Two
    Baconator Burgers for 6 Bucks
    Including Double Meat and
    Cheese And A Free
    Senior Citizen

    Drink Less

    Than the Cost
    of a Tip at a
    Full Service
    Gas Station Restaurant

    Anyway my Wife pointed Out to me
    “Aww the Little Girl over there at that
    Table Is Wearing Braces on Her Legs”

    With ‘Pity’

    Yet The Forrest Gump Moment was
    Yet to Come as She Struggled to Get
    Up and in Full Body Movements of Joy in the
    Place She Lifted Herself Up to Stand Became

    Yes the Joyous
    Dance of A Human

    That Otherwise Might
    Not Be Experienced If
    She Had A Functional
    Disability of a Smart Phone in

    Her Hand

    Indeed She
    Still Heard
    The MuSiC of LiFE

    Yes Joy and Moved
    Accordingly for What
    Free Spirits With Wings
    Will Do No Matter What
    Functional Disability May Come Next

    There are Many Forrest Gump Moments
    In Life and it Surely Isn’t Necessary For
    A Horse to Climb a Tree Or To Celebrate
    11 MiLLioN Words in 8 Years of a “Facebook
    Profile Pic Bible” Where Series of 18 Facebook
    Profile Pics Fully Illustrate 8 Thousand or So Word
    Mini Poetic Stories Sort of Like What i am Dancing

    Singing Here Now
    WHere ‘Those
    Braces’ of Not
    Being Able to
    Speak until Age
    4 on the Autism
    Spectrum Would

    Not Hold me Back

    From Yes Eventually
    Singing Free ThiS WaY
    Anyway This Life is also
    About Mastering the Tools
    And Not Becoming Mastered
    or Replaced By Them Where the
    Technology Slave of Facebook Just

    Provides Free ‘Cloud Space’ For Anywhere
    From 16 to 24 MiLLioN Words Annually for me

    And Around 1600 to 2400 Profile Pics as Well

    Just for
    the Real
    HeLLuVA iT

    as i reach the
    Official Senior
    Citizen Omen for
    A Golden Age at
    65 on June 6th

    And Just to Think
    The Fundamentalist
    Cashiers back at Walmart
    in my 40’s Still Carding me For
    A Beer Seeing 6.6.60 on my Driver’s

    License Were
    So Sure That

    ‘Omen’ Made me

    ‘A Devil Incarnate’

    Yet It’s True i Went
    to Hell for 66 Months
    Before the Last 142 Months of Heaven

    So Many Cocoons So Many Caterpillars
    So Many Butterfly Wings Still to Come

    in “Golden Age
    Omens With SMiLes”

    As i Danced And Sang
    All of this Just For the
    Title of What i’ll Start Dancing

    Yes Singing Free New Tomorrow

    Other than that Thanks Again For the
    Inspiration of Your Daily Eclectic MuSings…

    Hmm So Often They Seem to Fit in Seamlessly

    As Forrest

    F Gump

    Moments
    Often Do

    With SMiLes For Real..:)

    Like

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