HEAVY HEART - HEALING PONY, HEALING PUPS

It's 4:40pm on April 15, 2013.  My heart is so heavy that it feels like it will break.  My screen is filled with the circular images of the moment's news... Two bombs exploded at the finish of the Boston Marathon. 

My chicas at the Red Sox game
on 4/14/13

The Boston Marathon...  Since my move in 1991 from NJ to MA, I've watched the Marathon in Natick and at the finish many, many times.  I've volunteered at the Hynes Convention Center to hand out the runner's packets and wildly shopped for souvenirs at the runner's trade show.  And in my late thirties, I dreamed of running it.

The Boston Marathon...  always on a Monday... on the State holiday called Patriots Day.   Boston is filled with runners from all over the world.  You know who they are, their bodies are lean, their faces are taut with the fitness of an athlete...  you smile and wish them well.  For this weekend, they are our heroes... And, every year...  that's right, every year...  you wish you were one of them.

Fenway Park 4/14/13

I know my peeps are safe...  my niece, a nursing student at Northeastern, left the area 45 minutes before the first bomb went off.  She was safe and waiting to hear from the friends she left still cheering the runners along... 

It's two days and five hours later,  the images haunt me, the thirst to know who and to know why is almost unbearable.  I choose to hold anger at bay...  that will come when I have answers...  I pray for those most affected - those physically hurt, those that had the most wonderful day crushed, the runners whose dream is no more and for us - the powerless.

Sugar offers comfort.  Her body needs currying, her feet cared for and she gives me, in return, soft brown (one half blue) eyes and a snuffling muzzle.  And, today she jumped for me in the wind under a darkening sky.  She made no fuss, caused no harm and willingly went over.  Today she gave me what I needed... and that is good!

Da Boys, in their doggy ways, needed me and demanded my attention.  Tonight, I had a cuddly, floppy hound and a busy, attentive lab.  Their unconditional response to my need was a gift and I felt love.

Family... my Barn Peeps, my BSIL, and my Jersey Breds all contribute to the goodness of my life...  I am grateful, truly grateful for the healing...  Life is Good!

HISSY FITS! (OR PERHAPS HUSSY?)

Fighting to come up out of the debris

Ah Spring!  The time of rebirth...  flowers peeping through last year's lost leaves, birds singing sweet love songs for all to hear and the air is filled with the promise of warm days to come.  Here in New England it bursts out of the winter like fireworks in a July sky!  It is one of the most fabulous displays of night into day...

And with it comes the HISSY FIT!  After a winter of cold, long gray days locked in the confines of an indoor arena, you can feel the energy begin to build and eagerness start to soar.   The slightest change can cause leaping and bounding or quiet agitation waiting for its release.  A request to move forward or when asked for more often results in a flash of anger and a look that says, "Watch out!  I will let go...!"  Sometimes, you have to take a step back and approach even more gently than you did in January.

"Sugar", you say, "Wow, she does sound like a bit of a diva!  Poor thing!"

Oh, I was actually talking about myself.  I only wish I had an owner that would gently bring me down to the ground and assure me that, "I'm a good girl!"  And, "You'll be fine once you get outside again and jump around... It's all gonna come back to you!  Don't worry!  You'll be fine!"

The great news is that Sugar is actually taking Spring quite well (if you don't count windy days in her paddock)!  No lost brain moments leaping out of control...  She's been a lady.  Not sure my coworkers would say the same thing about me...  just sayin!

Our season will be slightly behind when compared to our previous years but when it comes, the Hissy Fits will be much milder...  And that is good for us all!