This Christmas Season – A Gift in Memory of a Little Girl who Loved Horses

The horrors of Newtown/Sandy Hook are everywhere. It is hard to feel festive and bubbly over this holiday when the faces of 20 young children are posted alongside funeral notices. And Christmas is, above and beyond the spiritual aspects, a holiday for children.

My children are now grown though not totally off and about on their own yet. Kate is finishing her senior year at Cornell and Tom is a sophomore there. I felt a bit silly at being so happy when they got home ? feeling that now they were ?safe.?

I read about the Newtown survivors and the efforts of so many to help with their healing. Therapy dogs, therapy miniature horses, therapy kittens. I know, from my own experiences that animals will help to heal. Unconditional love, no need to talk things out, a warm body to hug. Animals are good for people.

One of the short background posts about the lost children mentioned a young girl who loved horses. She wanted to have a horse of her own someday. Having been a horse crazy kid, I know what that was like. I feel like I want to do something, somehow to honor and remember these children. And my mind keeps coming back to the girl who loved horses.

So, I have decided that I will get 20 books on horses ? ranging from little kid books to books for older kids and adults. I will donate them to my local library (actually it is called a reading center ? it is not big enough or formal enough to be designated a library). I will do this to honor and remember that little girl who loved horses. I am sure there is a girl somewhere in my semi rural town who is equally infatuated with horses. I hope that she will read and enjoy the books. And in some way, it will make me feel that I have done something positive to fight back against the darkness of this event.

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