Kinda funny little thing...

Money mania...I'm not always aware of what is winding my spring, but the past 10 days I've been very uptight about the fact that the horse board payment is late for the first time. No checks have come in, and we've had to front money for supplies for the job Rick is working on, so I haven't been able to pay Finn's board bill. I keep checking the mailbox and I'm checking email 5 or 6 times a day to see if Sheri is writing to say checks are available. I knew I needed to talk to the ranch owner and let him know when I could pay him but (old M.O.) instead I kept stressing and checking for checks, hoping money would arrive and I could slip a check in the rent box at the barn and not have to deal with it. Well, no checks yet, but our big quarterly check will definitely be here by the end of the month and there's a good chance Rick's client will pay him when he sees him this weekend. Normally I would still wait until after the weekend, stressing, distracted and feeling like a loser for being late. Instead, I was honest with myself this morning. I can't make the clients pay us, but I can do what I think is the right thing and let the barn owner know what's going on. This just is. I picked up the phone and left a message apologizing and explaining when I could pay him. When I hung up, I felt good knowing that I'd done what I thought was right and the best I could do. I wasn't stressed anymore and I was smiling, and for the first time since the first of the month I could think of my horse without a huge cloud of guilt pressing down on me. I started thinking how much I love that horse and I can't wait to see him later today. Right then I heard the plink of an email arriving. I went over to the computer and there was this photo from my friend Teresa taken with her cell phone...she was on the walking trail behind Finn's paddock AT THAT MOMENT and sent me his picture. Kinda funny, huh? MK