Surprises

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 (11 days until the First Day of Spring + DST begins next Sunday)

In barely over a week will be the first day of spring. Yesterday afternoon, the weather played a joke by surprising us with a blizzard. Heavy hail and snow began just as I started to walk one-third mile down the street to a neighbor’s pasture. I needed to gather and bring home my horses. “Drat this,” I thought, just as a truck turned onto my street. I recognized it as belonging to a neighbor, but instead of turning into his driveway, the truck came clear to me and stopped. “Hop in and make this trip easier,” he said, and after turning his truck, drove me to the pasture.

My three equines coated in hail were galloping in circles and bucking. “Yes,” I’ll be all right,” I said, “The horses will be eager to go home where they have shelter.” He drove away, and I entered the pasture. The horses stopped to wait, easily were haltered. I led and secured each to a tree, arranged in a typical order for our march to home.

Just then, I saw a my neighbor on foot coming down the street and waving, heading toward us. He laughed, “I need exercise anyway, so put on my gloves and am here to help!”

I took the lead ropes for Sunni and Pimmy, he lifted Rosie’s lead from its tether. We began to walk, facing into a thickly-driving hail that made talking difficult, and hearing speech impossible. He was comfortable with Rosie, who was behaving well, and I concentrated on speeding-up Pimmy (no easy task).

We reached home, removed halters, and gave carrots to the animals. My neighbor had enjoyed the process and laughed, declaring the outing had been fun, and wishing me a good evening.

Understanding that I could by myself have brought them home, he came anyway to help in the face of blustery, awful weather. A spontaneous act of sheer kindness. Thinking about it, that’s something I must play forward by acting on the next opportunity to assist someone who seems in need.

Dear Friends: I’m humbled by his spontaneous show of concern and act of sheer kindness. Diana