Hitching Post

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I usually take three two-mile walks each day. Each walk is on a different route, but they’re all in or near the Warm Springs historic district of Boise, Idaho (established in the mid-to-late 1800s), which means I get to see some cool stuff, including relics of days gone by.

Back in the day, it was customary for a horse-drawn carriage to pull up parallel to a perfectly spaced hitching post and set of steps. Once the reins were secured in the iron loop on the hitching post, the driver would open the carriage door, and the occupants would descend the steps.

“Hitch your wagon to a star”—the famous quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson—means to aim sky-high and follow your dreams, with the implication that you can achieve anything!

What have you hitched your wagon to?

© lauriebuchanan.com

40 thoughts on “Hitching Post”

  1. Hi Laurie,

    A bunch of ideas:

    1/ That high tech intervention will allow indefinite life extension in good health with young looking bodies.
    2/ That using a value measure based in scarcity is an insane way to run a world where we have the technology to deliver abundance.
    3/ That both new levels of complexity and freedom are based in, and find their highest expression in, cooperation (as opposed to the current dogma that freedom in found in competition).
    4/ That we can cooperate globally as diverse independent responsible agents, which is a very different thing from global governance or global domination.
    5 That individual life, followed by individual liberty (responsibly expressed) need to be the highest values if we are to survive.

    That technology can be used to benefit all, and needs to be. The existing cancers within the economic and political systems of the world threaten us all.

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    • Ted, I resonate with all you offered here. Here in the U.S. our President is not in alignment with any (it seems) of the above. It is shocking to me to hear so many beyond the White House so willing to sacrifice lives (the poor, the old, the immune compromised, and more) to their liberty. May we regain our sanity!

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  2. How cool to be able to see the old hitching posts. I suppose I hitched my wagon to the children´s author star many years ago. It´s been ten years since I published my first Amanda Travels book and have published 7 more books since. I would say it works!

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  3. This made me smile because here in the Shenandoah Valley and many many other communities in Pa., Ohio, Ind. and probably others, hitching posts are still very much in use and you find them even at parking lots for places like Walmart and Lowes and Menards. The Amish and Old Order still need need them for their horses and carriages or buggies.

    But to respond to your prompt, I hitched my wagon to a Shenandoah Valley native and am glad I did, to live in a beautiful area with so many natural parks and hikes and scenic spots I can view from my own kitchen window. 🙂 Have a good one!

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  5. Three two-mile walks each day! That is wonderful, Laurie. I told my husband we need to up our game. We only walk about 30 minutes each day. I am hitchin’ my wagon to taking longer walks!

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  7. I’m hitching my life wagon to presence/being attentive and with our deep connectedness in mind. My daily practices have also been a vital to my sanity hitching post: meditation, exercise/walking (but far less distance than you achieve), healthy eating, reflective reading, and writing. And, thankful for the technology which allows opportunities to see and talk to those in their own versions of isolation. After 2 months of social isolation, I’ve embraced the opportunity (at a deeper level) that this time offers. I’m considering the positive possibilities this “breaking apart” time may offer us. As Governor Cuomo said recently… the possibility to … not only to re-open but to re-imagine.

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    • Audrey — I love what you’ve shared here, and I share in your excitement about “the possibility to not only re-open, but to re-imagine.”

      And I love that you have a “sanity hitching post.” I’m surprised Len hasn’t installed one for me. Yet! 🙂

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  8. Old hitching posts here were built mostly of wood rails and so disappeared with wear and tear and rain. There is a stone one somewhere on the Capital Campus grounds but I remember it from childhood and not where it is now! I am having a wishing day….working the routine but trying to visualize something new and wonder full coming up on the horizon. I am tired of my food and wish for a restaurant meal that is yummy and different. I am wishing for a new outfit. Really, I think I am wishing for a bit more income and not being so on the edge all the time. I am unhitched and floating in a limbo Its okay and I rather like social distancing, cheering for the essential folks, walking and enjoying the flowers and Zip’s meanderings, and of course – reading good books.

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    • Patricia — I’m good with social distancing too, and I love (adore!) walking. I see so many wonderful things when I meander. I haven’t thought about having a restaurant meal because Len’s such a good cook and can turn the ordinary into extraordinary. I love that you’re visualizing something new and wonderful coming up on the horizon. I bet it arrives soon! 🙂

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  9. I hitch my wagon to L O V E. “The greatest of these is Love.” If each of us loves each other – our uniqueness, our differences, our similarities, our dreams, our desires, our loves, oh how beautiful the world would be.
    But I’m one, and I hitch my wagon on love, knowing many others do too. Like you!

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  11. Laurie, if I had hitched my wagon to the metaphysical star….it would have been to work in concordance with the Divine Nature of the Multiverses, learning to lean into the flow instead of trying to block it. To be more motivated to sustain quality Life and less invested in the chemicals used to suppress it. Mother Nature is a Big Star and could use a helping hand to pull so many wagons!

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  13. I’ve waited a full day Laurie, hoping my answer would come to me. Still, nada. Perhaps I have no wagon to hitch? Perhaps I’m more a lone rider? Not yet ready to settle on one post? Hard to say. Emerson missed me on this one. Cheers though.

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  15. We are doing a four mile circular walks that we never knew about before the crisis. Arthur and myself were beach bums and like Jeff totally unhitched once we set our sights on crabbing .
    Cherryx

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