March 4th, 8:08am: Okay, so much for hoping it was a one night recovery. Finding I have to take it slow with just about everything – food, rest, sleep. I feel an obligation to return emails to all the kind folks who have written but that will be a long time project yet I find without Windchill to worry about in the barn, this remains a connection to him and his spirit. I realize that our roles have probably reversed – he’s safe and happy and looking out for us like that deal with the horse trailer Sunday. It’s just hard – maybe this is what it’s like when you finally watch your children grow up and leave the nest and someday they’re back to help you with your errands and threaten you with the knowledge that they’ll help choose your nursing home? Right at this point I feel like so many of what were major problems before are so petty. I’ve mentioned before I think, while our lives may return to whatever normal is, they’ll never be the same. I just find escaping that contagious little spirit of his is impossible. As I start to look at pictures and try to figure out how to create a gallery of our time with him, I’m always drawn back to that innocent face, those bright, bright eyes and how flippin’ adorable he was. And it wasn’t until he was laying in the trailer that we realized just how bright that star was on his forehead. I don’t know if that was how it was as he lay in the barn or the result of his departure from earth but it was so brilliant. Maybe it was left as a physical reminder of the brightness his eyes had. We sure miss the little guy. I’m not sure what’s worse – as an equine professional, Kathi understood more the odds and chances. I think for myself, and for others on his care team, ignorance was bliss. The odds were just a challenge we ignored. Yet we all gave our hearts to Windchill. His sweet innocence made it impossible not to, no matter how big and tough you were. I won’t name names with that statement – a glance at the red eyes last weekend would have answered that. I don’t think it made any of us less tough, it just made us better as human beings.
As we develop Windchill’s foundation, I’m finding there’s a lot of folks wanting to help as well as donate and participate in its development. I think I will need to add, at least for now, a separate link off here with notes on the organization as it’s developed as well as its needs. The obvious needs at this moment are the accounting and legal and we have some folks willing to help develop it pro bono. We are exploring options for the interim – tax deductible non-profit status is a journey that requires IRS approval and that’s quite a process – and to keep things moving we are exploring ideas such as affiliation with a foundation to create a Windchill Fund (we have already created a restricted fund as listed in the donation section) as well as another structure to operate under for the interim. We will keep you updated on that page, I’ll try to set that up later tonight or later this week if time doesn’t permit today. If you’re a graphic artist and/or website developer, I’d love to hear from you on the development of a site that hopefully captures the spirit of Windchill. Thanks for caring and continuing to ask you guys – you’ve really helped keep our spirits up and you mean so much to all of us.
