The Horse Kiss: Grateful for Work

The Horse Kiss

Are Your Grateful for Work and Those Who Work With You?

Last night, I heard a most wonderful story. My friend Adri called to share a story I had been waiting to hear. I knew that Adri’s family was from Italy but she had grown up in Brazil. The story of how they got there is most amazing.

At the end of slavery, Adri’s great-grandfather was lured to Brazil with thousands of other immigrants. They were all given then promise of building better lives if they would replace the free laborers who had worked as slaves.

Adri’s maternal grandfather had just been a young boy when he finally escaped the hardships of what turned out to be a trade very similar to today’s trafficking or “white slavery” as it is often called.

He worked hard as a carriage driver, pulling a taxi cart that people rode in.

One day, after working many years and providing for a family, he was able to buy a horse. Every night he would wash, brush and kiss his horse.

Adri’s mother was a little girl then and would wonder why her father was kissing his horse. One day, she asked her gentle and kind father why he did it.

What he told her got me up and out of my bed actually needing to share it;

“This horse did the job that I had to do for many years. I know how hard it was, so I am grateful.”

I hope you are grateful for your job, the people who work with you and for those who pulled the cart before you got there.

Be you, be well, be grateful.

Bertice Berry, PhD.

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