Our Family

I'm a photophobe, and I go to remarkable and often silly lengths to avoid being photographed. I've been that way most of my life, and I doubt it will ever change. Once, I saw a picture of just me that I liked. But this one, of Scout, me, and H.G., my unmarried partner (as the latest Census form denominates it) is a picture I treasure. It was taken by my best friend on a day shortly after Scout was brought to the picture-book farm where we board. That was in the autumn of 2006; it seems impossibly long ago. In the picture, Scout is asserting her absolute right to be with the two of us, not to intrude, but to belong, to be part of our family.

Scout adores and trusts H.G. I think it's his height that she loves. When we brush her together, he rests his left arm over her withers or back, and I think it takes her all the way back to when she was a foal, resting close against whomever her mother was. I just see that peace in her eyes.