Sometimes all you can do to beat the dark is shed a little light.: seanan

Sometimes all you can do to beat the dark is shed a little light.

As most of you are probably aware by now, I collect generation one My Little Ponies from the 1980s. I have something on the order of two hundred plastic horses, a bunch of the playsets, and an open door policy toward boxes of Ponies found in attics of childhood homes. (Seriously. It's amazing how often people write me and go "I found this box, do you want it?" I have several Ponies I love very much that I acquired in this manner.)

As I slowly prepare to move, I've been sorting, indexing, and packing large portions of my Pony collection. I don't actually have a comprehensive list of what I do or don't have; a lot of my Ponies came from eBay job lots, or from the aforementioned attic finds, so there are duplicates, and Ponies whose names I don't know.

I mentioned on Twitter that I was doing this. And one of my Tweeps, a very lovely paranormal romance writer named Delilah, asked if I had her favorite, a yellow Rainbow Pony Pegasus named Skydancer. She lost her Skydancer in a fire when she was a kid. I understand losing Ponies. Part of why I collect is because I lost my childhood collection before I was ready to part with it. I affirmed that I did have Skydancer, and more, that I had a duplicate, and would she like her?

She would like her.

Skydancer has reached Delilah, and is finally home. I have reunited someone with their favorite Pony. And it strikes me that this is the thing we often don't want to understand about fear, or pain, or grief, or loss. Sometimes, we need to focus on the little things to survive the big ones. When a house burns down, we mourn a toy. When a grandparent dies, we get upset about missing a TV show. It's not being petty. It's coping with small so the big doesn't break you.

To quote Delilah: "I have Skydancer again. It's like a tiny little wound in my soul healed, risen like a rainbow-haired phoenix. What is lost can be found."

I feel like the world is going to be okay today.

vincentursus

July 20 2011, 02:09:06 UTC 5 years ago

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On today`s episode we learned about sharing as Seanan gave the gift of a treasured My Little Pony.

On next week`s episode Mira Grant will also demonstrate the power of sharing as she lends a machete to a young man being menaced by zombies.

seanan_mcguire

August 2 2011, 21:37:13 UTC 5 years ago

Sharing is awesome!

Dayle Dermatis

July 20 2011, 05:02:09 UTC 5 years ago

When I was 5 or 6, my favorite book was a picture book called I Walk to the Park. Then our house flooded and I lost it.

A year or two ago, my husband managed to track it down, and presented me with a copy. My memory of how the book went was wrong (it wasn't three fat pigeons, it was just one fat pigeon, for crying out loud!), but he still managed to find it.

This is one of the many reasons he's my husband. :-) (He also found a copy of a movie I saw in the theatre when I was 9 but had to leave right before the cliffhanger ending....)

Thanks for being awesome, Seanan!

November 8 2011, 17:29:41 UTC 5 years ago

Oh, wow, go team husband!

fluffworld

July 20 2011, 06:10:14 UTC 5 years ago

This makes me happy. :D Also, Skydancer (who I decided was a bloke for some reason) was one of my favourites - there was only one in the local store. Ireland is pretty small, and this was my only option at the age of 7 to get one. That Skydancer was reserved and hanging behind the counter. I stared and yearned and stared and yearned, but they couldn't get another.

Come my birthday, it turned out my Mum had reserved him for me. I was the happiest kid for miles. :D

Also I have found a page that lists all the MLP and now I am NEVER GOING TO GET ANY WORK DONE EVER as I spend the day finding out my nine ponies' names again. I have found Cotton Candy, Posey, Moonlight and a few others.

I should really clean them up next time I am home in Ireland and donate them to a good home but some part of me wants to keep them forever.

November 8 2011, 17:30:12 UTC 5 years ago

Nothing's wrong with keeping them forever. They love you.

aryana_filker

July 20 2011, 07:01:31 UTC 5 years ago

I sometimes wonder what awesome stories life can tell. And you're so right, it's the small things we need to focus on again. I just read a book by the Peruan author Sergio Bambaren called "Beach of my Dreams". It's exactly about that. Finding happiness and contentment in the small things. The book helped me to get a clearer view on my life and made me, well, not another person, but a person with much clearer thoughts and goals. I will not mourn for what I haven't reached in my life. I will be happy for what I have accomplished. Thank you for sharing the story of Delilah and Skydancer. Put a huge mile on my face.

November 8 2011, 17:19:08 UTC 5 years ago

I am glad. :)

amanda_nye

July 20 2011, 07:15:37 UTC 5 years ago

That's an awesome story. Thank you for sharing.

July 29 2011, 19:21:02 UTC 5 years ago

Very welcome.

baka_kit

July 20 2011, 08:03:35 UTC 5 years ago

Awwww! (((hugs)))

November 8 2011, 17:18:54 UTC 5 years ago

YAY HUGS.

jennygriffee

July 20 2011, 09:39:30 UTC 5 years ago

That's awesome, and I do know what you mean. Sometimes, the right small thing at the right time can really matter.

November 8 2011, 17:18:30 UTC 5 years ago

Exactly.

bardling

July 20 2011, 12:20:05 UTC 5 years ago

This is so perfect. Kindness & the Interwebz for the win! You rock! :)

November 8 2011, 16:31:49 UTC 5 years ago

It made my day better. :)

mac_arthur_park

July 20 2011, 13:01:32 UTC 5 years ago

This made me weep with recognition.

My grandparents own a house on the other side of the town where I grew up (they've been trying to fix it up for years, and just don't have the energy or money). It was broken into, and the creeps took pretty much everything. All of my china teasets were just smashed (how's that for just pure spite), books destroyed, keepsakes mangled.

They're in the process of cleaning the place up to sell, because they just can't do it anymore. :(

And in the midst of the rubble in the attic, they found Amy. She was my constant companion through the nomad life of a military brat, and I thought I'd lost her forever.

You did an amazingly beautiful, kind thing. And I for one know how much that means. Thank you.

November 8 2011, 17:17:56 UTC 5 years ago

You are very welcome.

And YAY AMY!

salsta

August 12 2011, 05:20:16 UTC 5 years ago

That was such a wonderful and thoughtful thing of you to do. Well done you and I'm very, very glad that Delilah has had a hole in her heart patched. It's lovely to hear that someone is so grateful an act of kindness too.

September 11 2011, 03:15:15 UTC 5 years ago

I love it when everything comes together the way it really should.

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