Tern is blithe and Sidney is unsettled. I am finding the balance. All the Place of Peace tools are getting a most excellent stress-test.
I think of all the people who are dealing with three times as much. The poor vet looks like he has broken his pelvis or done his ligaments or something equally painful. They are keeping him in hospital. Tern now has a new vet, Maciej, pronounced Magic. He is from Poland and he once saved Florence so we love him. Not obviously that my vet love is contingent and conditional but if you save Florence you have my enduring love and gratitude.
Love and gratitude; yes, those are what are keeping this engine going. I keep thinking of funny little things to be grateful for, like the fact that all this happened in the summer. Imagine if it were pitch dark and sheet ice outside and I was having to spend an hour every day ferrying water back and forth from my neighbour's house. As it is, the red mare and Florence are loafing about looking after themselves and nodding forgivingly at me when I arrive with a nice snack and a quick scratch and an apology.
Someone said it's really good for us human to do hard things because it trains the brain in resilience or some such, and I realised I had grown to cherish and to choose ease, wherever I could find it. Perhaps all this happened to remind me not to get soft. I must be steely, just like the great mares are steely. I mean: underneath all their sweetness and dearness they have a core of flint and steel. I've always admired that about them. I have always thought of emulating that. Yes, let us be flinty and not shy away, when the trumpet sounds.