– Mark Twain
For the past year, a friend of mine has been keeping her horses here at our place. Earlier this summer, she felt very strongly that God was leading her to start up an animal visitation / therapy program using miniature horses as well as dogs.
She has little money, less time, and -- because of her husband's work demands -- is for all intents and purposes a single parent. Yet, she stepped out in faith and decided that if God was telling her to do this, then He would find a way for it to happen. It wasn't too long afterwards that two wee equines came to our place, and Mini Miracles became a reality.
When the horses came here, they were in rather sad shape -- undernourished, under exercised, and just generally in poor condition.
In the time that they've been here, they've bloomed. (Literally. One, we discovered, was -- surprise! -- expecting.) They have brightened the lives of people in nursing homes, elder care facilities, elementary schools, church gatherings, and women's shelters. They have more of a purpose than most horses, and they have risen beautifully to the occasion.
Not only am I immensely proud of my friend for responding to her convictions, but I am almost as proud of the fact that she has begun a Mini Miracles blog documenting her experience. This is huge.
I've known Chari for years. When you think of people who would leap at the chance to keep a running chronicle of the goings-on in their lives, her name is not one that would generally be at the top of the list. She's much more happy doing a thing than writing about it.
So, for her to choose to write about what she is undertaking -- beginning a non-profit from scratch, wearing her convictions on her sleeve, and documenting the on-going therapy horse ministry -- only serves to underscore her commitment to the project. In a sense, her blogging is a mini miracle in itself.
Writing is like that. When things matter -- when they count -- we often feel compelled to commit them to paper (or, in the 21st century, to pixels). It is as if doing so makes a thing somehow more significant, more meaningful, or more real. It has the added benefit of allowing others to peer into the windows of our souls and see the mechanism that drives the Great Undertaking. It encourages people to share in our experience, to sympathize with our setbacks and to rejoice in our triumphs.
Not everyone enjoys writing. Chari would be the first to tell you that she is "no writer." Ah, but she would be wrong. Because, you see, she has something to say. And she is choosing to write it down -- regardless of whether or not it is perfectly phrased or punctuated. She wrestles with the same words every other writer has engaged in battle. And in doing so, she joins the rest of us poor saps who can't stay away from the fray.
