While I was away...

Yes, it's clearly been a while and oh so much has happened.  My last post was in early 2012 and here we are in December of 2013. Since 2012, we've had a severe concussion (for my daughter caused by a horse), a couple of deaths (a great horse and a great dog, that later of which was caused by a horse), an extremely challenging hoof abscess (for Bobbie, the toughest little pony on the planet) and extreme anxiety (much of which was caused by a horse or two or three).  Still not sold on buying that next horse?

To be fair, we've had many challenges in the last couple of years unrelated to our equine friends with a couple more deaths, surgeries, stress and etc., etc., etc..   If I seem a little casual about these horrific things, it's because we've been a bit beaten down and ...

On the bright side ... we've endured... and ... pause for dramatic affect ...  we truly are closer than ever as a family and man have we learned a lot about ourselves and been tested to the extreme.

As soon as we start wondering, "why us?", feeling sorry for ourselves for what we've been through or proud of ourselves for what we've been able to endure, we look closer at the people around us (feel free to do the same .. no really).  If we think about almost everybody we  know really well, they're all surviving and enduring something.  Whether it be for illness, anxiety, drugs, family woes, financial challenges, car repairs or anything else, we've realized that all of us are always fighting our way through something.

The beauty of challenge is surviving.   The beauty of surviving is we're still here.   The challenge of surviving is the fear of what's next.  The fight endures and like Winston Churchill, "We never give in"