May Your Heart be Light

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas Morning.

Maybe you are still wondering about last night’s blog story. Are you wondering where the horse came from? Well, early on that Christmas morning, 21 years ago we trudged through the snow to the nearest farmer and told him we had been visited by a white horse the night before. He knew which farmer the horse belonged to. He said it escaped its field regularly. He said he would call the owner and let them know. Later that morning, on a walk we saw the horse again, now safely in a field. We had some apples so we went home and collected these and gave him them as a Christmas present. He looked almost as mystical as he had done the night before in the swirling snow. We were visited many times by this horse. He became a friend.

As we assembled the flatpack table and chairs ready for our Christmas dinner the snow began to fall more heavily. Then we discovered a major snag. The brand-new oven was not working. It wouldn’t even switch on. We had a large turkey in the fridge. What to do?

We put the turkey in a roasting tin and lay it on the back seat of the jeep. Then we drove back to the old house and cooked it there. When it was ready we put it back in the jeep and set off for our new house again. We inched up the sloping drive terrified we were not going to make it out of the old place. The entire mile was nerve-wracking. But the jeep smelled wonderful.

Finally, we sat down to our Christmas dinner at the newly assembled chairs and table. It was still snowing. We had made this happen and it was a wonderful feeling.

Every family has their share of good luck and misfortune. When we bought the field and decided to build a house on it, people had no end of disaster stories to tell us about folk they knew who had built their own home and how many things had gone wrong. We had to be very brave. Money was tight and there were an awful lot of problems to solve. But as the white horse seemed to confirm, luck was on our side and this particular dream came true.

Life can be very tough sometimes. It can be frightening, or depressing, worrying or sad. But every now and then, things happen which remind you how wonderful Life can be.

Such was the case with the events of Christmas 2004. It is still a fine home and I am writing this blog to you this morning from within its walls. We never gave the house a name and it has no number and sits in a road with no name. Maybe we should have called it Capall Bán which is Irish for white horse. This would have honoured the magical horse who welcomed us here.

Wherever you are in the world, and whatever your circumstances are this Christmas I hope today is as happy as can be. I hope you feel love for the world today. And I hope there is a white horse waiting to bring you luck and to watch your dreams come true.

Merry Christmas.