The experience of Presence

"The only thing we can do for others, is that which we do for ourselves"
Those words were given to me by Chinoden as an answer to a question I had proposed to the horses. 
I was driving home from, and in reflection of, the experiential retreat weekend of yoga and horse healing. Each piece of the retreat puzzle had come together to provide every one of us there with an opportunity to find and feel something that we maybe didn't really realize we had lost until we found it back. 
What I found was discovered through the horses, the scenic and serene landscape of the Elk Valley, the 8 of us who came together to embrace & engage with our own unique experiences of all that was presented to us.... and in the words offered back to my inquiring mind.
I found in the soft light of the morning hours that giving my body the space to find itself through yoga was deeply invigorating for all parts of me. 
I found in the pasture with the horses that life shows up when we do; not always how we want it to, but always providing us an opportunity to connect our presence with.
I found in the quiet space of the evening glow of the fire and the darkness of the night mountain sky, that each one of my senses became amplified offering me a greater sense of how to feel myself in relation to all that is around me.
And I found that allowing myself to do what I wanted and needed in each moment, always gave me an experience far greater than what I thought I was stepping into. Going for an early morning hot tub on the Sunday morning and hearing, for the first time that weekend, the bugle of the elk. Wanting to be by myself that morning; following a trail to the Elk River to come across a huge bull elk who lifted his head, looked square at me and bugled, calling his herd who came crashing out of the nearby trees and out into the open hayfield, about 40 of them standing there watching me... offering me that there are always messages, insights and experiences being given to us, it is up to us to notice them.
Each of these findings are concepts that I know about, talk about and understand. My greatest find of the weekend was the experience of how those "findings" FELT to me, in my body, rather than just talking about or understanding them. 
Going full circle back to the answer that Chinoden gave me, the only thing we can do for others is to step fully into the experience ourselves ~ so that we are a body within that experience, we embody that experience. Words of wisdom are needed, and very compelling... but when we are present with having a felt sense of an experience, this becomes our presence...we have felt the feeling, allowed it to move us and move through us. This is what we offer to anyone and everyone who crosses our path; their own experience of our presence.