Partnership Educators,
One morning someone hundred and ninety years ago, Anna went to school without her umbrella. She was a lively fourteen-year-old that sometimes let her daydreams push aside her more practical considerations. In the English hot and humid summer with skies that were overcast, the clouds were likely to burst into rainfall at any moment. Her mother had mentioned and reminded her and asked her to take her umbrella with her that day, but she had not. Now it was midafternoon and there was driving pouring rain. Mother was watching out the window when Anna came up the steep carriage drive. Her bonnet, her hair, her clothing, and everything was drenched. Mother hurried to open the door and was alarmed to hear a loud cry of pain. When mother swung open the door she saw little Anna sprawled in the driveway in agony with both ankles horribly twisted. Anna was carried into the living room and laid gently on the sofa. “How had this happened?” Mother asked. Anna just shrugged her shoulders because she really didn’t know. She had slipped and fallen and somehow both feet had turned as she fell. Anna’s mother clasped both her hands and reassured her that it would be just fine. The doctor came and said that she would be good as new as it was just a very bad sprang in both ankles. He added that healing would take a while.
Weeks and then months passed and Anna still remained unable to use her legs. Even though Anna could not walk she was permitted to ride and even encourage to ride a horse. Mother then rented a pony from a nearby stable and on his back, Anna could run and gallivant across the countryside as she could not on her own. The horse became the greatest friend that she would ever have. For hours every day, Anna would ride through the bright meadows and sometimes stop to sit in the fragrant grasses and talk to him. This was to be Anna’s only freedom. This is where she found her true happiness.
All of Anna’s days were spent as a person too weak to move about on her own. She was confined to her bed and deprived of friends her own age. Her ankles never did heal properly. As long as she lived she was only able to walk a few times and only able to stand unassisted for a few moments. She was mostly found in her bed and almost always in pain.
While Anna sat in her bed she gave a gift to us all. She wrote a book. Actually, it was to be the only book that Anna wrote as she passed some six months after its publishing. She dedicated this book to a little pony who had become her legs and to all the horses who had spared her a life of utter confinement. So well written was Anna’s book that it is said to be somewhat responsible for the humane treatment of horses in the second half of the nineteenth century. I am sure that you will always recall the story of a rainy afternoon in 1834 whenever you read or hear the novel that is a tender tribute entitled, “Black Beauty” written by Anna Sewell.
Reminding ourselves of our everyday blessings is a pathway to gratitude. It helps us remember all the good things in our lives and keeps us moving forward. I am very thankful for the many blessings that I have been afforded with family, health, and purpose in my work. Anna’s novel helped her to honor the thankfulness for a friendship that she felt for the pony of long ago. The book was the first in English history to be written from the perspective of the animal and it was her empathetic writing that changes things for the horses she loved. “When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.” C.S. Lewis.
Thanks for your empathetic work that you have been called to do for the students and families of this community. Changing the future lives of those we serve is a noble work indeed.
Enjoy this holiday season.
Rob