Traffic Jam in the Buffalo Underpass

do baby buffalos make good pets? the only reason i ask is i had an up close encounter with one this morning and he was pretty darn cute. it got me thinking about our own herds and the people who watch our backs ...

more on that in a sec ...

out and about early picking up kids and dropping them at preschool and orchestra practice i was in the mood to treat myself to a quiet drive home over some rutted dirt backroads. i drive this road a lot. today there's snow on the mountains ... from pike's peak to rocky mountain national park. mountains as far as the eye can see and it's truly a majestic sight.

that's what i went for.

but today the buffalo were out. they live on this cute little farm with a cute little red barn and a cute little silo. their cute not-so-little pasture is divided by this rutted road. these buffalo have a nice life. they even have their own underpass that gets them from pasture to pasture efficiently.

today there was a traffic jam in the buffalo underpass.

chow was arriving in the west pasture. buffalo who were hanging casually in the east pasture now have the intention of getting to the chow. quickly.

i stopped. today the buffalo were way more interesting than the mountains. i got out of my car and walked right up to the fence flanking the buffalo underpass.

now i don't know much about the dynamics of buffalo society ... the hierarchy ... their moods and personalities ... but the buffalo who were still idling in the traffic jam on the east side were definitely getting aggressive. snorting. pawing. pushing.

i walked back across the road to the chow pasture where buffalo are popping out of the tunnel one-by-one like candy in a pez dispenser and that's when i met the baby buffalo who stole my heart.

he was darn near airborne when he shot out of the tunnel. and then he tripped and fell. i liked him immediately.

i guess, this morning, i was slightly more attractive than the buffalo chow as he stopped and checked me out. my phone has a "built in" camera (ha) so i pulled it out of my pocket, stuck my hands through the fence to get as close as possible and then proceeded to drop the danged thing as i was pulling out the stylus to operate the touch screen. a camera yes. an efficient camera no.

but now i really baby's attention. while i'm quietly cursing the stylus and considering the merits of just letting the buffalo HAVE the phone (if i dared show you the crappy pics you'd understand!) i notice he's tentatively moving towards me.

i'm on my knees, reaching for my phone. watching.

baby is taking one step forward and then glancing back.

you see, a couple of BIG buffalo stop who've just popped out of the tunnel have now stopped to watch. the fence is starting to feel REAL flimsy ...

and here comes baby. one step forward. one glance back. one step forward. one glance back.

until he's about 5 feet away, which was plenty close for us both. and then we just kind of had a moment. he was all gangly legs with a grayish brown coat and huge blinking doey eyes.
i could almost hear the pitter patter of little hooves across our high sheen hard wood floors ...

baby buffalos are really, really cute ... if you're in to the mangy coat and hump kinda thing.

i didn't get the picture i wanted as he stampeded back to the big boys as soon as I reached in far enough to get my phone out of the grass and slipped against the fence, which really felt more like hitting a giant cheese grater, causing quite a rattle ... but i was really moved by how brave he had been ... getting as close as he got before i wiped myself out.

but this is what i suspect happened ... these big buffalo who had stopped to monitor the situation were the supporting players in baby's choice to act courageously. and i had an extraordinary experience this morning, just hanging out in a baby buffaloes space for a few moments because of his courage.

so it got me thinking about the power of having people in your corner. not in some grand intangible way, but really, a small group of people who support you in being courageous in life.

my dictionary defines courage as a "firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty".

if you're up to something big, you're going to encounter difficulties. that's just the way life works. want an easy life? go sit and watch tv and never leave your house. you see, courage isn't the lack of fear or doubt, courage is ACTING in the face of those fears and doubts.

the dictionary says this takes a firmness of mind and will. well, i don't know about you, but some days i just don't want to do it on my own. i require a swift kick from someone reminding me i am courageous. someone standing beside me. a couple of big buffalos watching my backside, lest i backslide into mediocrity.

there's a word for this dynamic, possibly coined first by napoleon hill in his book "think and grow rich". a mastermind group. regardless of who thought up the phrase, some well-known authors and business folks are putting this topic on the map again. why? because it's transformational.

simply put, it's folks connecting with other folks in order to support each other in living an extraordinary life.

i have a brand new mastermind group that's meeting officially for the first time this week.

i'm jazzed.

an office supply entrepreneur from texas ... a pilot and army reserve professional working just miles from the pentagon ... a brilliant 20 year old with a heart of gold ... a mindset coach from colorado ... and me ... all different walks of life and not necessarily much in common except we're all up to something big.

and we're here to support each other in playing big.

i'll keep you posted on what we're up to so check back often. trust me. these are people you want to know.

i'll also be posting some great resources here in the coming days on the power of the mastermind and how you can create this same support structure in your life!

QOD: what would you be able to accomplish if you had a team of people in your life unabashedly supporting your dreams and visions rather than holding you down like a 1,000 pound backpack?