Pino is a natural at this and was just born this way. I know I've told you all wonderful stories about him, he is almost a mystic in my mind-he senses even more intuitively than many what is going on inside some one's heart. All equines are sensitive to their exterior world, but some just have an additional gene I think-that is my experience in watching animals in the past years. Once a group of women came out to see the farm, I knew none of them but did know one of them had recently suffered a type of stroke and was relearning to speak. Outwardly she looked as healthy as the others. As we got to know one another we were standing in a make shift circle, and I watched out of the corners of my eyes as Pino slowly made his way around the group, sniffing each one, but when he got to the recovering stroke person, he leaned into her a bit.
That is just one of many stories, some others are down right spooky.
So Pino shared himself, methodically and quietly.
Before we came, I had received an email that Ginny had passed this Wednesday. We had just met her a week ago, with our visit with Opie, and I was so very sad she had left us-although she is free of all the earthly entrapment's she needed simply to breathe. I talked to one of the residents today, and Ginny was her friend. It was a brief conversation, but she was very sad for that goodbye. I knew when Opie and I were there that Ginny probably wouldn't be around for a year, but I was anxious to get over there again with Pino. So I was sad that we missed her. I was also told that Opie's visit made her really happy, so I am glad of that. Such simple gestures can leave big impacts on a person's heart. And she left an impact on me as well. You can know someone for all of twenty minutes, but their presence impacts you, their leaving is a void-this is a good thing to remember, isn't it? Make your minutes with others count. I guess if you are genuine, that for me is what I strive for, to be genuine and to be there for the elders we visit for them, not me. Just a day brightener for them.
What is most comical and I tried here to give you a sense of it-when I take Pino out the donkeys understand he is coming back, since it is a routine now, but they do watch as we leave. And when we return, you would have thought we'd been gone for months on an overseas exotic journey. Everyone comes to greet Pino, it is as if they say things in his ears,
"Were there elephants? What was the food like?"
Returning to the barn, the donkeys squeak and bray and Boone hogs the gate.
"PINO! Thank God you are back!"
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| Birdie makes sure Pino has returned in one piece |
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| "Pino, did you see any elephants where you went?" |
