Scars

Today, while I was at work I was thinking of this sweet horse. She is about 3 years old and has some basic training done. Last summer she and another horse went out to pasture for the summer. While they were there, she fell into a large hole and got stuck, here legs were hurt pretty bad.

It has taken months of care and she still has scars that are healing. Despite the pain she has experienced, not by anything she chose to do, but from a situation beyond her control, she continues to be one of the sweetest and gentleest horses.

The rain and snow keeps her in her stall most of the time to try and keep dirt from making an infection in her legs. Sometimes when I walk by her stall, her head is hung low in a depressed sort of way.

Today when I went in her stall, I rubbed her face, and she would lower her head in a comfortable and submissive gesture. She doesn't have to trust, she doesn't have to be patient and gentle. Lots of horses would be skittish and mean after a painful and traumatizing experience like hers.

I will admit, sometimes I am in a rushed work mode to get things done. I won't stand in a stall and rub a horse, maybe a pat or a rub here or there, but not standing  comforting a horse. Today was different. I stood there and just rubbed her. I felt a kindred spirit in her. A soul that has been hurt, but continues to love. A gentle spirit. I felt bad that such a sweet horse doesn't get more attention and love. She is often the "lesser" of the two horses. But I think she is the greater one. The other horse is in your face, she is needy for attention, but this one is patient, she respects your space even when she wants so much to be loved. I don't know how the other horse would be now if this had happened to her instead.

Some might think she is damaged or ugly for what she has experienced. Her scars aren't gone, they are still healing and they are a reminder that she is alive and she is a survivor. She is strong and she is beautiful. She is full of love. She is more than her scars. So are you and  am I. We are more than our past. You are beautiful and loved. You are strong even when you feel like breaking. You are more than your scars. In the words of a popsong, "you should know you're beautiful just the way you are, and you don't have to change a thing, the world could change its heart, no scars to your beautiful, we're stars and we're beautiful."