wyatt's first job, visiting skyline pines

 

The village at Skyline Pines, Assisted living and memory care facility.

It was an amazing place and experience. Far more touching and spiritual than I anticipated. Wyatt's very first job was an excellent experience. It was a total success. But "success" here was having an eclipse before the effect of spirituality.
​Everybody had a beautiful smile in their face, probably the best smile of their life. The effect of  Wyatt on them was a heartfelt smile. They sang about him , they blessed him and  TOUCHED him. And I saw FIRE in the eyes of those who touched him.
      The facility stands tall on a hill carpeted by wild grass. While turning from the Mount Rushmore road to the facility
I was getting ready to have an initial assessment, which is just my intuition. Call it good or bad. I did call it. The gravel road up to the facility that turns to the right from the actual road ( service road that i took ) was very comforting. The familiar sound of gravel rolling under the tires made all of us feel at home. As we come up on the incline beautiful tree lines and the hill gave me ideas,  I quietly said to Wyatt  "We will have some adventure before we go home".
I proceeded to unload him in a quite area and take him to the grass. He was as calm as ever. He did not hesitate to jump out of the truck and walked very enthusiastically to the grass and started eating. Then he raised his head up and gazed at the amazing view of Rapid city and the suburb from that vantage point. From the courtyards of Skyline pines, between his two horns I saw that too. I saw grace in his eyes and in the silhouette. 
                                                                      A sudden realization hit me, this is his first job. He is making his money doing a very honorable and spiritual job. His mission is to bring happiness to the needed. Will he full fill ? or will he act up and throw temper tantrums. No, that is not Wyatt. I said to myself. He is elegant, handsome, brilliant. But do all these things matter ? More than everything it is spiritual.
            A song came to my head " Amazing grace how sweet that sound , that saved a retch like me"
Smiles started where Wyatt met Laura at the courtyard, she called, "Wyatt"  very softly and touched his forehead. He acknowledged that elegantly, She opened the door for him and said let's go in.
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A fearful world

Memory loss​, the most fearful state of existence. I could not even think how it feels. loss of memory , how will you feel ? is that a world of silence and despair ? or can you still be happy ? or are you truly lost ? why did Wyatt has such an impact on them, why did they all smile and talk about him with an enthusiasm in their voice ? why did they keep coming back to him to touch him and talk to him. Wyatt was an angel for them who brought good vibe and happiness to them, it was a joyful time that they  spent with him . I saw that he was happy too. Happy to spent all the time that they needed or rather destined to be.

The challenge

When we stepped through the front door , The gravity of the situation has fully sunk into my head. This is very special and my responsibility is to help him bring that beacon of buffalo light shine. Laura said we either have to take the steps or the elevator to reach where we are going to meet the residents. All of a sudden a challenge was thrown at me .
I like it that way, assess the situation and make a fast decision rather than extensively planning ahead  and when the plan fails, which is consistently true in my case, will end up fighting the failure to make the failed plan successful and end up in total frustration and emotional nonsense and ruin the happiness for those who needed it. I will not let that happen. 
              I  looked at the stairs , winding large stares with grey carpet  without much open space  on either side to see. I made a decision against taking it.  It was a little confusing to me , I may not be able to stay in his space, with him because of the two leg. four leg imbalance. In the stares I might end up in front of him or behind him and that might make him uncomfortable. But then the next choice is an elevator and for some reason i was very confident that he will trust me and will walk into the elevator and I could be next to him where my space is . Being with him. not in front, not behind.
      As the elevator door slowly opened, I saw him looking at the space inside the elevator with a little curiosity. The elevator was well lit that eased my concerns a lot. I smiled at him and encouraged to go into the elevator with me and he happily moved forward, as the elevator door shut he was slightly concerned but clearly trusted me and stay put, giving a new aura to the term "Bull in a china hutch" or "Bull in an elevator"/ As the elevator slowly ascended there wasn't any rodeo happening inside , it did not break apart or turned upside down , no sounds of Horns clashing with the elevator walls. No holes were happening to the walls. No bucking was happening inside the elevator. It was a smooth sail.
  

Buffalo whisperer

I never imagined that I would meet a Buffalo whisperer in that realm. As we proceeded through the living room introducing Wyatt to the residents everyone's face started to lit up and there was glitter in the eyes and smiles everywhere and they started calling his name. The whole energy level started to raise out of that world. The reluctance started to slowly fade away and they all become awake . there is a buffalo in the house. As we slowly strolled though the room, Wyatt was very calm and relaxed. 
                   I thought a breath of fresh outside air at this point is good for him. Before that thought was over Laura said  we can go out to the courtyard and then we will decide how to proceed from there to the next stage. Once in the courtyard he stretched out a little bit and looked all around but was not eager to go check the grass. 
                                                                                    Around the corner came lots of people , they came forward towards him . He was relaxed, just pawed the ground a little bit and laid down. I sat down with him to be with him. One by one they came to him with a smile in their face  and glitters in their eyes , they called his name, they touched him and gently ran their fingers through his Mohawk. They told stories and they all said how handsome he is. They talked about his horns, his beard, his Mohawk. They came back again and again, They asked his name again and again and every single time I said "Wyatt" with the same excitement. I would have said that a thousand times with out any hesitation. I saw how he created a beautiful new memory for them. There comes Marie in her wheel chair, she came forward slowly and asked his name. She sat very close to him and sang a song. She kept on singing and I saw Wyatt slowly pointing his ears towards Marie and gazing towards the sound of the song and then slowly closed his eyes and went to sleep. Marie is one true buffalo whisperer, I witnessed it.

Back to the ranch

Coming out of the facility I asked him if he want to go down the hills and have a little rodeo. He was ready. Running down the hill jumping over stones and ridges was fun. At the bottom of the hill was Percy, Wyatt was ready to go home, he loaded up without any hesitation and we went back straight to the ranch.