Margo the Brave (and Butterscotch too)

I got to see our granddaughter do something that scared her this weekend and what a privilege that was.

I think the ability to be brave is the most important thing we teach our children. It transcends all the rest.

Kindness? Empathy? Honesty? Curiosity? Respect?

Those are all important qualities, too. But they wither in the absence of bravery.

You can’t just know what you believe in, you also have to be able to stand up for those beliefs. You have to know you can do hard things.

Our little Margo is only two, and she lives in a cocoon of love. But, she also likes to stretch her boundaries and her wise parents know just how to let her do that.

On a blustery afternoon at the zoo, Margo really wanted to go on a pony ride. Based on her level of enthusiasm, I figured she regularly rode the ponies at the Turtle Back Zoo. She lives right around the corner and goes to daycare across the street.

The Turtle Back Zoo is one of Margo’s playgrounds.

As it turned out, we were witnessing her maiden voyage around that pony ring.

Due to the cold weather and the slow burning off of nearly everyone else’s Thanksgiving tryptophan, we were also the only ones who stood in line for the pony rides. So, neither Margo nor her dad had any time at all to second guess their decisions.

As the well-trained pony assistant led her off to climb aboard Butterscotch, the sweetest pony in all the land, Margo tossed us a look that was a cross between pure fear and incredulousness.

“Are you really going to let me do this?”

We gave her and Butterscotch a mighty cheer.

But, she also looked especially tiny on that pony and I’m sure any one of us (especially her dad) would have dashed in and scooped her up the second she changed her mind.

Instead, she straightened herself up on that saddle and rode that pony around the ring like a badass little jockey and we cheered her on like spectators at the Derby.

John Wayne once said that courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.

I know it was just a pony ride at the zoo, but I was just so grateful to be there and see my spunky little granddaughter saddling up and taking a ride.