Resilience

We had something sad happen last week. My son, Eli’s pony Spirit, died of colic. Below is a picture of Eli with him right before he died. It happened very suddenly. He seemed fine when my daughter fed him the night before, but when she went to feed him the next morning, he looked terrible. My teenage girls and Eli stayed home from school and walked that poor pony around from 7 am until 2pm. He kept trying to lie down, but they wouldn’t let him, knowing that would kill him for sure. When I got home, we took him to the vet, and they did all they could, but he died that night.

What lesson did my kids and I learn from the death of their cute pony? We did a lot of talking with them about disappointment and loss and how to deal with it. I think I took it harder than the kids. Ultimately, I think it has taught us a lot about resilience. How you can do everything you can to prevent something but then being able to deal with it when it does. The kids tried everything they could to save the pony but then they became an example to me of how to bounce back and to move forward even through heartache. I am very proud of them.

I love the quote from Louisa May Alcott, “I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."