DailyBlog : Happiest Childhood Memory

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For the sake of blogging and self-exploration and contemplation, I answer a question a day off of this list.

Today’s question : What is your happiest childhood memory?  What makes it so special?

• Before I get to the question, I want to apologize for not writing these daily lately like I have been aiming to! I’ve been in an odd mood the past few weeks, not a BAD mood, but I’ve been very busy with work and with my foster animals and I just haven’t felt the motivation to write or blog (grrr) I will TRY to do better! Back to the question now.

I wouldn’t say I have one happy childhood memory in particular to pick out as my “happiest”; my childhood was anything but happy. I don’t mean that I had ZERO happy moments, but I can’t pick out one particular memory, more like periods of time.

Summers at horse camp, and at the stables up in northern Minnesota, were the only times during my childhood that I was ever happy. Horses made me happy. Being around people that all shared my passion made me happy (I was always the black sheep of my family; having nothing in common with them at all) so it was such an amazing feeling to care so much about something that other people around me cared about, too. Everyone, especially children, wants to feel heard and understood, and to be able to share a common passion. Having that, and also having that sense of peace and freedom that comes with connecting to horses – that is what made me happy. I miss all of that, a Lot. Riding will always equal happiness to me; the unspoken connection with such a powerful, FREE spirit of the horse, all-out galloping in a field with the wind in my hair and his/her mane.. it’s the best feeling in the world.

I did not have a happy childhood, but I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world. I also have no idea what I would have done without those horses, and those people to look forward to, and to get me through the tougher times. So much gratitude. People can sometimes make the world a terrible place, but the world itself is not terrible. I suppose, animals will be the only consistent thing that will ever make me feel an un-corrupt connection to the planet I live on.