Several years ago, I was blessed to listen to Kevin Brown give a speech about his book the Hero Effect.  He is an amazing speaker with a great message.  He believes that Heros are NOT ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  Instead, he considers a Hero an extraordinary person doing ordinary things with no strings attached.   This past week a hero came into our lives to help Macklee with her filly.

 I think all girls like horses, but Macklee loves them.  She has wanted to be a horse trainer (and a veterinarian) for as long as I can remember.   Recently, we began watching the show Heartland, which only served to  intensify her desire to train a horse.  When you asked her what she wanted for her birthday, her response was unwavering, “a horse to train”.  Right before Macklee’s birthday, her Aunt inquired as to what she wanted for her birthday. Her Aunt said she had a filly that she would give her.  (if we could get David to approve!)   So, in September,  a wild red roan filly that had never been touched arrived.  Macklee named her birthday present “Katy”, after John Wayne’s wife Kathyrn in the movie McClintok!

Our hero is a person that I have known my entire life.  Last week I saw her as an extraordinary person.  She had never met Macklee, but had heard through a mutual friend about the filly.  She drove 4 hours and helped Macklee for 4 days in the freezing cold (42 degrees).  She taught Macklee more in 4 days, than all the videos we had previously watched.  She was an amazingly patient teacher.  Macklee soaked it all up like a clean kitchen sponge.  Macklee was able to get into the pen with Katy and begin working with her. The transformation was amazing to watch.

Marcia Vanbuskirk is an extraordinary person who gave of herself with no strings attached, and for this she truly is our hero.  I am not sure she will ever know how much the gift of her knowledge and time meant to Macklee and us.  Macklee thinks she hung the moon. She told me “Clinton Anderson is ok, but there is no way he knows as much as Marcia”! Each night she would tell us (at length) all the technical stuff that she learned. When I came home and asked how her day was she replied, “mom my day was magical”! There is no better feeling in the world than to know your child had a “magical day”.

I believe everything happens for a reason (even if you have no idea what the reason is). There were a lot of things that lined up to make this happen.  My new favorite quote from Einstein sums this up perfectly, “coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous”!

Thank you Marcia, we are better because you brought your best and showed up. You have to move people in order to move mountains.

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