Josie is quiet, she has cared for Buford at Blue Star for more than six years. She is 16 years old. Caring for horses at Blue Star has changed Josie’s life and altered the course of it. Today is almost surely the last day she will see Buford, she came into the barn where he was standing, he came over to her and pressed his head against hers, and the two touched heads and spirits with one another for what seemed like a long time, but was just a few minutes.

In that time, great love and connection passed between them, it was tangible, visible, heavy enough to feel and touch. I am sending Josie this photo and also this quote by Anne Lamott:

“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”