February 2008 • VOLUME 30 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

Lisah Pakula

artonthefringe.com

A Mother’s Musing



When Lisah was born, there was an aura of fragile sensitivity about her, and a feeling moved my heart to hold this specialness close, and to honor it, no matter how it would be expressed from her, through her, during the life she was about to live out.

Physically, Lisah had a sweet grace, and in her light blonde, blue-eyed prettiness, she looked almost otherworldly…in fact, the remnants of her pre-birth Spirit Light glowed softly about her.

The sensitivity held in place and began to express around the age of two, with demonstrations of an ability to perceive animal forms in wads of simple clay. In her tiny hands she would mold animal figures that were remarkably life-like. We lived on a ranch in Arizona at the time, so she saw cattle, dogs, and horses, finding with them a delightful affinity, an easeful relatedness, as they responded gently and lovingly to her.

I will always hold the image in my mind’s eye of the time she was perched atop the tall, stocky ranch horse, Cochise—her little arms about his broad neck, her face buried in his straggly mane, -their coloring a mirror of one another—he, a rich caramel palomino with a near-platinum blonde mane, - she, a rich caramel sun-drenched body with a near-platinum blonde halo of hair. Carbon copies. Suddenly, in a shift of position, she was on the ground, planted directly on top of the hooves of this giant quarter horse, 20-times her size. He stood motionless as we held our breath. With absolute awareness and respect for this tiny human’s presence on his powerful forelegs, he waited in stillness until she removed herself. She was totally confident, totally trusting, totally certain of her safety, totally at one with this animal monolith. That moment explained for me the on-going bonding Lisah experienced and expressed as she grew in years, as she maintained her desire and need for animal presence in her life.

She was never interested in dolls, doll carriages, tea sets, and playing house—a girl-child’s usual focus. In her playtime she “became” the animal characters, imitating with amazing likeness, their behaviour. School recesses often found her gathering her classmates to be her “herd”.

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