M y days as a participant in workshops and classes were behind me. Now I was lecturing in Retorno’s prevention and empowerment programs giving therapeutic horseback-riding lessons and facilitating groups both on and off horses.
One particular group of eight women consisted of present and former Retorno staff outpatient clients from Mifgashim and family members of alumni. This was the seventh in a series of ten empowerment horseback-riding workshops and the topic was Step Six in which we declare our readiness to “have G-d remove all these defects of character.”
We rode toward a carob grove just outside Kibbutz Tzora along a quiet fairly straight dirt road with few distractions for the horses.
Eventually we stopped and tied the horses to the trees. They munched grass and weeds while we sat in a circle on a carpet of green enjoying sweet chewy carob pods. “In Step Four ” I began “we got rid of our resentments and learned what some of our character defects are. In Step Five we shared those flaws with someone else learning as we did to accept ourselves even with those defects. Now in Step Six we’re actually ready to have our character defects removed.”
