Today's mystery....this is a picture of ? It is not a current picture, so perhaps that will help....

It is a picture of Christmas Past.....1984 to be exact, and the beautiful chaos on the table is my dissertation, back in the days before computers, and printers made things quick and easy.

I put myself on a quota to finally get the thing finished and be able to graduate that May.....my program was essentially being done away with, so finishing seemed a good thing. It was my

second doctoral program in a second University, so again, finishing seemed like a good thing.

So I gave myself the quota, write for 2 hours and then stop for a candy corn break, then write for another two........

It's an odd thing getting a doctorate, like many things in life, I had plans, such plans for how my life would be with it. For the doors it would open, the jobs

and professional respect that I would have.......

And as often happens, reality was nothing like my vision.......my job pretty much stayed the same, I was treated with pretty much the same respect that I had been getting, some people did call me doctor, some people called me doc, and some people said, oh I didn't know that you had that degree......

Family and friends gathered for the ceremony, my family and friends who lived 1000 miles from me, one set to the east, and one to the west.....but the best part of the weekend was spent as many in my life have been, at the barn,Fwith my Saddlebred, Little Rex, son of So Much a Lady, and "Big Rex". I had had him from babyhood, done all the training and breaking

to ride myself.

I was able to show him off to my college roomie, and horse friend extraordinare, who also climbed up and rode him......A special day indeed....

Interesting how of the two accomplishments, the one involving Little Rex, which was way more complicated than just taking a horse from birth to adulthood, and having no human contact to being a trustworthy riding companion, vs. completing a graduate degree that took years, and many stops and starts, and U-Turns......

My success with Little Rex is the one that gives the greatest joy, and sense of pride in the accomplishment.......

What in your life brings the greatest satisfaction, the greatest joy?