Year of the Buffalo 

Every year for the past handful of years, I have named the year with animals.  

As the new year arrives, I watch for the vibes that come, feel for the rhythm that is drumming and get ready for the flow coming near us.  

One year it was the year of the llama.  What fun that year was!  No drama llama.  No prob-llama. My sister even found t-shirts to match! All good all year. 

Another year was the year of the rabbit.  Yes, I scurried from one project to another.  Went down rabbit trails and stopped to see what was coming next.  It was a year of guessing what was coming and from what direction.  Nope. Never bored that year! Whoosh and let’s go with it!  

This year is the year of the buffalo.  Who’d have thought that it was going to be so fitting!  

A little back story.

There is a story told about the difference between the cow and the buffalo.  How they approach a coming storm.  It goes something like this.  

When a cow sees a storm coming on the wide open prairie it panics and starts to run away from the storm.  This makes it so the cow stays with the storm a very long time as it is actually running with the storm. It will run and run and run to try and get away from the storm and all the while the storm is with the cow.  

This happens for such a long time sometimes that the cow gets exhausted and wears itself out. The cow is done.   

Doing it a different way

When a buffalo sees a storm coming it will turn into the storm and run right into it.  

Running until it passes through the storm and out the other side.  

It faces the storm right away, gets through the heart of the storms with its raging parts and then it is able to find calm.  The buffalo takes less time to be in the storm.  

The buffalo is built to take on the storm. It has broad shoulders and a thick coat.  It knows what it is doing.  And it does what it is made to do.  I also think the buffalo goes into the storm with other buffalo, so they go through together. 

When I described this to my friends, they couldn’t believe I was going to name this year after an animal that took on the storms.  

You have seen enough storms.  

Why go looking for more? 

The storms come, I said.  Why not get through them faster?  Stronger. 

Let’s see what the year brings, I said.

And now it is August.  

The storms came.  This year has been bumpy and we did get new storms.   

The question

Here is the question we asked to go with this year. 

What Are We Going To Do? 

This sign is in our office. I see it every day and talk about this question in almost every conversation. 

What else am I going to do?  

This came to mean other things.  Not only how I go into the storm. How I come out of it. 

Who can I help? Is it someone near me or perhaps someone I meet for only a moment?  What am I supposed to be paying attention to? 

Have you had that feeling?  A small whisper or a thought of where to turn your gaze?  Even in the middle of your own storm. 

Amazing. Powerful.  

Head into your storm. Go in with others who are built like you. And then, look for what you can do. 

We are built for this, my friends. Let’s finish this year of the buffalo!