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I am just really excited for the summer fun to begin. We all got plans, right? Some of us have no clue what to do with all that free time in the sun. Some of us want a tan, some want summer jobs, some going camping some staying home with family, and some of us just want summer to last forever. A good break before school starts again, for me that is good. Some of us imagine sitting on a boat, with a rod in one hand, and a cold one in the other. Joking that might be my own imagination. [But the cold one would be a nice cold can of Pepsi ]

I have my own plans for summer and these are just the few things I would like to do. First of all I would like to have a huge bon-fire after school on the last day of school, that is if our fire pit dries out! And I would really like to go fishing, out some where. I haven’t figured out where I would like to go yet. I guess I gotta go and find a really good fishing lake! I really enjoy fishing. I even fish in the winter seasons, it may be cold, but that will never stop me. For me I prefer summer fishing the most. I remember I took my mom with me last year at the beginning of the summer season. After that she just fell in love with fishing!! I will go fishing hot or cold, But my mom tries making me go Ice fishing on aweekend when ever I am busy fixing up fences or getting hay for our animals.. Totally regretted it!! But at least our animals were happy with that bizzar winter that we had. Now that the sun is out I am going to go and get my boating license so I can go with a few of my buddies that are into fishing just as much as me, which in other words is basically only one friend! At least I still have my cousin John! I have to catch up on my fishing cause my grandma’s friend is already ahead of me for this season. He takes me fishing with him a lot! Hoping to take my older sister out fishing sometime in the summer when she has a day off of work, she never goes fishing much. So I enjoy her amusement when ever she catches a fish. I usually fish in Cold Lake, Arm Lake, Crane Lake, and other small ones around those lakes. We don’t have a big boat either so some of our choices are very limited, I find it just amazing that we can go out on Cold Lake. I have one friend who lives down south in Stirling, and he and I are just in LOVE with fishing, when we talk that is basically all we talk about so I am hoping to go down and visit and hopefully get some fishing done. I remember a few years back my family went fishing together and this is when me and my dad did all of the fishing! Literally we did all of the fishing in the family so we were pros at it, but we came to shore around sunset. So me and my little sister decided to fish off the doc. She thought she caught something so I went to go and see her, all of the sudden she falls in the lake! Good thing she had a life jacket on, cause it ended up she was caught on see weed! I was just killing my self laughing! Another story of mine was just last summer, it was last week of August, me and my cousin decided to fit in some fishing before the season is up. We decided to go to Beaver Dam, and we took my little sister and our other cousin who is younger than her. We were at a family get together and we had a boat with us, so we packed a good days worth of supplies and headed out. We finally got out on the lake, and we went straight to the other side. After two or three hours of fishing some one finally caught one! We brought it in the net, and I was just untangling some lines. And it turns out that the fish was too small. And it also turns out that no one wanted to touch the fish! So my little sister and cousin definitely didn’t want to touch the fish so they pretended they were busy. And my cousin who is just a year older than me tried touching the fish, but once he felt the slime on the fish he just freaked out! He didn’t even know that fishes were slimy. So I rolled up my sleeve and grabbed the fish out of the net and grabbed the pliers. Got the hook off, and put the fish back in the water. They said they would have kept the fish if  I wasn’t there. But I knew they just didn’t want to touch the fish. Oh  well, gotta learn sooner rather than later.  So as you can tell I am just getting ready for fishing!! I would like to try fly fishing up in the mountains. I think it would be quite good. There is a river out by one of the stables that my big sister works at. I have went there to check it out and I went further down the river and I thought I just had to come up and try fly fishing. Cannot wait any longer! I honestly don’t know why I enjoy fishing? I have been fishing since i was really little, I guess it is being out in the middle of a lake with no worries. I have and will always love and enjoy fishing.

Oh, I guess I should add camping, as it turns out I enjoy camping. Been camping lots, and will continue to go camping in the future, hoping to take some friends and go out camping for a week or so. My mom recently bought a camper, she is hoping to do alot, and I mean alot of camping. I prefer tenting it up. Really shows who can take the cold. Last summer was kind of a cold at nights. And my mom couldn’t stand it. So she takes every warm quilt that we take with us for camping. My mom always asks me and my dad “How do you do it?” Dad looks at me and we both say, “We tough it out”. I don’t find it too cold when tenting. So far I went camping once for 4-H. On May 1st I went with my dad and my two little brothers, I was in a tent alone, and it was freezing out side. But I was basically the only tenter who made it through the night. My dad and one of my brothers when to the truck, my littlest brother was sleeping in the lodge. And then there was me all bundled up in a tent nice and cozy. I really enjoy the outdoors, canoeing, hiking, fishing, quaddng, shooting, just about anything that is outdoorsy.

Well I hope that I can visit family and friends, I enjoy taking road trips over the years. I have just about travelled around Alberta! Just need to go more up north, and fit those places in my plans. I would rather go and travel with one of my friends. So my mom is planning to go and visit my aunty down in Oregon, I don’t know if I want to go maybe I might just stay home and take care of our animals or go down into Calgary and visit my sister while my mom and the rest of the gang are gone.

Most of you might know that I am just horse crazy! So I am hoping to fit in some riding, I would like to try some Halter, Western Pleasure, Reining Classes or some cutting horse competitions. I have a beautiful buckskin quarter horse at my grandpas house, and she has beautiful blood lines both her her dam, and sire have ranch, reining, and cutting blood lines in them. So hopefully I get her home before school is out.  I would like to also get a job somewhere that boards horses, or get some classes in to help me prepare for those competitions. I am planning on going to visit my friends around and going for nice long trail rides. I hope I can have my friend from Stirling up here because not only does he love fishing as much as me, he also Loves riding too. He rides appaloosas in shows and he told me about their horses blood lines and they are just amazing! He has Texagos! I know that may not mean anything to you, but to me that is just amazing! Especially since appaloosas are my all time favorite breed! I mean my aunty owns an appaloosa named Charlie, but his lines are mixed. But, I still love Charlie, he is one of a kind. But I would like to buy my own appaloosa, so I am already looking. It may not be a Texago, but hopefully purebred. It might keep me busy over the summer hopefully, thats if I buy one! But if I don’t, I always have our buckskin to keep me busy.

So summer is all about fun right? Well, at least I thought so. But, I have to get some stuff done around the house. For example I have to redo fences, and do up some repairs on our barn. The lawn needs to be mowed, and I guess I am always the one who has to do it. (at least I get a decent tan out of it!!) Well I guess that is my summer plans so far. Not everything can go your way, and let the good times role all the time.

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In this poem the topic of doubt and fear comes up several times during this poem. At the verse in which the teller of the story is going on by him self with his friend almost dead, is just one example.  Another example of these emotions is in the verse when Sam is saying that he’ll cash in the trip. There are other examples in which this happens for example when the teller opens the Furness and finds Sam sitting there looking cool and calm.

Now I have never been to the arctic and I probably won’t.  It’s cold up there and I don’t think that id like it much.  But the worst thing that could happen would have to carry the dead body of your best friend across barren tundra.  At this point I don’t think that the teller would have much hope.  The author makes this clear with verses such as in the days to come, though my lips were numb, in my heart how I cursed that load. In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring, Howled out their woes to the homeless snows — O God! How I loathed the thing. This verse makes clear the teller not only not only has his doubts about what to with the corpse, he is scared of it.  So this guy is probably coming apart at the seams with doubt and fear.

If you were up in the freezing cold and you friend turns to you and say the he’s not going to make till the end it would be kind of frightening.  One would almost think that in this story Sam is almost suicidal.  Verses such as Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess; and if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”  Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess; and if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.” This can only ad to the tellers doubts and fears.

I can’t say from experience but if I opened a Furness and found a guy sitting there completely unharmed I might just faint.  In the verse And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar; And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door. It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm —Since I left Plum tree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.” The author implies that Sam was simply thawed out from being frozen.  I think that if I saw this I would not be able to handle it.   For the teller this would be a frightening sight, your staring at a person that you thought was dead.  This could only add to his doubt and fear of the world.

I think that doubt and fear play sectional roles in our lives.  It is because of this thing that we do some of the things that we do.  The Cremation of Sam McGee Illustrates this very well Robert Service dose a very good job of telling the story.  I reading this poem and I recommend it to everyone.

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From watching Andre Agassi on TV, I got the idea that he was a passionate athlete dedicated to tennis. Upon reading the first chapter of this book, I quickly learned that he was indeed both dedicated and passionate. Yes, he was dedicated to tennis, but not by his own free will. Andre is also a very passionate man, but he does not hold much passion for tennis. The Andre seen on TV during his career was not the real Andre. Just like any famous person, Andre`s complete life has been a journey, a journey full of torment and contradiction. Now, through his inspiring autobiography, he travels with his readers to find his true identity and learn what it means to be human.

Andre had no choice in how his life was to be lived. His time was to be spent training to become world number one. This is a fact he struggled with early on. He wanted his own identity, instead of the one his father had created for him. This was never as apparent as when he got sent to the Bollettieri Tennis Academy. At the age of thirteen, the constant pressure and the lack of freedom finally got to him. As any human would in his situation, he rebelled in every form possible. He needed to regain some control for himself and rebelling was the only way he saw fit. Andre was always told that his identity was to be a tennis star. However, he always knew that that was not who he wanted to be. All humans struggle with their identity at one point. However, Andre has always had another identity forced onto him. First, it was by his father, and then by the unforgiving media.

There is a moment in the book when Andre finds himself in need of a new coach to improve his game. His future coach Brad discusses his game with him and he spoke one line that particularly resonated with me. He said, “There’s about five times a year you wake up perfect, when you can’t lose to anybody, but it’s not those five times a year that make a tennis player. Or a human being, for that matter. It’s the other times.” This quote is extremely accurate. Human beings are not defined by those “perfect” days. It is the hard times and the obstacles that help define a human. It is the ability to learn and grow from mistakes and challenges that shape a character. This is one reason that Andre was very well-liked by spectators. He had faced challenges and hardships that others do not normally face. It took him a long time to learn who he was and grow from these challenges, but when he did; he was a much better and happier human being.

While reading this book and learning of Andre’s struggles, I wondered if he would ever find what he was truly meant to do. After a life full of confusion, anger, and rebellion, he at last found what gave him a sense of fulfillment. He wanted to give back. Andre knew that it is the responsibility of every human to give back to others. He wanted to help others live a life they can be proud of. Andre spent his entire life without freedom or choice and wanted to give others the ability to make decisions about their own lives. After realizing this passion, it was only a short matter of time before the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy was opened. It is after the opening of this school and marrying Stefanie Graf that he truly seemed happy.

Andre’s journey is one filled with contradiction. His hatred of tennis was pitted against his constant strive for perfection. Andre’s autobiography captures this conflict. It captures each and every emotion Andre felt throughout his life from the highs to the lows. It is an inspiring story that follows a confused little boy’s adventure for identity and love.

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Is it natural to feel hatred and anger sometimes? Well, what if the past wasn’t all that great? What if we are scared of the future? And who are we angry at. is some total stranger, or some one we love? Well, fist of all it is natural to feel anger and hatred some times, it can based on millions of different reasons. Some times we get angry at those around us, and we start blaming them, and soon not too long after that hatred settle in side of us and we are blinded by anger. Boy Toy written by Barry Lyga is a emotionally wrenching book. Josh Mendel had lots of hatred, towards himself mainly, and he hated how he let is happen to him. He carries guilt and he hates those who made him tell the whole story, those who pried it out. He hated those who made fun of him, those who wanted him to leave her, and blame her. Josh thinks it was his fault, so now anger sweeps through him, and soon enough hatred sets in him. He was a good kid, smart and athletic. He had a good life until Eve a new school teacher came into the picture. But he has always wondered why did Eve let him do it to her? Well, being blinded by anger can bring out a dark side . Especially for Josh, kids in school avoided him as much as possible. Soon after the trial, people started learning to stay out of Josh’s way, and then he turned invisible. But every now and then Josh would get bumped in the hall way, and soon he lets his anger out. In the beginning of the book it said that he punched his baseball coach, all because of a rude comment. That one comment just drove Josh to the edge. I let his anger out, and well that brought a side of him that nobody has seen in a long time. I mean, tragicties happen to us, but what happens if we start blaming others, or our selves? Is is alright to feel that anger inside? Well, yea it is alright because we are humans, and humans have a wide variety of emotions. And lots of times, those emotions are strong. And anger is the main source for bringing out a dark side of people, anger is the fuel for it.

What is the true meaning of love? Josh asks himself this question all the time. Yes, Josh has had a horrible past and now 18 and he’s got only a few weeks before he graduates. But lately his old friend Rachel is trying to make up to what happened back then. She wants to start again at where they left off. But can he really feel the same with another girl? Wait this isn’t some other girl, this Josh’s best friend. How can Josh not talk to her any more? But, unfortunately Josh can’t control anything, especially when Rachel loves him. But is it right? He figures he would be cheating on Eve, and Rachel. But Rachel doesn’t care about what happened five years ago with him and Eve. She is ready to move on and start a relationship, but is Josh ready for that. First of all Josh doesn’t know what love is, or does he? After his parents announce a divorce Josh is furious now. Five years ago his mom told him that he doesn’t know what love is. But now Josh says that to his mom, and he wonders if not talking to your loved one is love then he didn’t want it anymore. Holding hands, hugging, and giving small kisses is practically impossible for Josh now, he freezes up all the time. And he has these “Flickers” which are like flash backs. His Flickers are always taking him back five years about small things that happened with Eve. He always wanted to please her, trying his best at what ever, always wanting to maker her smile. But now these Flickers just haunt him now, he doesn’t know why. Everything with Rachel is hard for Josh. Is it that guilt that he has been carrying with him all these years? Or is it something else? Rachel is showing him what love really is, but he always brings up the times he had with Eve. But Rachel’s but it in the past and now she is teaching Josh how to love again, and how to let go of the past. But that anger is always in the way, can he really love again? You know love is different for every one, some people have that love for ice cream or chocolate & coke. Or some people have that love for family, or their pets. Some people have that love with friends. But what is the real meaning of love? Most of us are trying to figure it out. There are millions of definitions of love. And what is true love? Honestly I got no clue. Some people say that True love at first sight. Wait True love at fist sight? What does that even mean? I have no clue. But if any one finds it tell me. Cause every one tells me “Oh you’ll find true love soon” But honestly I don’t think so. Love is something that we all want, and most of us don’t want to have to work for it. But unfortunately, you do have to work for it, we work through things with others, and we eventually find a meaning of love. Some people abuse the meaning of love. But how? We take advantage of it sometimes, and others tell us we don’t know what the meaning of love is. But sometimes it takes time to understand something like love. Love is complex, we just can’t look it up in a dictionary and say oh so that means I am in love with so and so, or oh I love ice cream, or I love to play basket ball. No, love has to many meanings to understand it, We just have to take a trip, and soon enough we do understand what love is. But Josh is determined to make this work, he want to show Rachel that he is willing to give it a try, he wants to catch Rachel’s attention. And hey Josh might find peace with Rachel, and find the truemeaning of love.

Eventually we all have to forgive people who have done us wrong in our lives right? Well, it is not easy, and I do know from experience. Especially when we blame ourselves for what happened. Josh eventually found Eve, and went to see her. She looks just like what Josh remembers. And he asked her Why? Why did her let her do what he did? But after painful tears, and a few questions. Eve finally realizes that guilt that Josh has carried on his back for five long years. And she apologizes, and tell him it wasn’t his fault. It was her own. Josh was literally going crazy before he visited Eve, he was scared of what he might do if he saw her again. But eventually Rachel teaches Josh that overcoming his fear will be better, but yet then again Josh doesn’t know how to overcome his anger and fears. We are all afraid to overcome our fears, but we challenge our selves. We strive to get over them, and lots of the time it does do us good. And even when we face parts of our tragic past, it can really take a load off of our backs. I find it is a challenge especially when we need to forgive those who have done us wrong. But some times if some one done us wrong we start to blame our selves. And it make forgiveness a bit harder. But why does forgiveness have to be hard? Honestly I have no clue, but it is part of the healing process. It brings us a better understanding of things, it can help us look in depth of our own fears. And I think what people really hate about forgiving others is the emotions we face. But we run, we run from our fears, and emotions that comes along with the forgiveness and healing. Some people find it too much to bare, and it can cause us more pain, and anger. But the results can be really rewarding. We will eventually find a new strength in us, and it will get more and more stronger as we heal over time.

There may be scars from our wounds, but at least it is healed. I find that humans are so fragile, we are fragile to emotions, especially pain and anger. So that anger or pain starts to cut deep into our souls. Some people take things too serious, and that leads to us becoming too attached. But, I mean we can’t help it can we? For some people they can control on how they feel, they can control how far we let those emotions go. I know people who have dated for three days, and they just are in love and they just can’t stop talking and talking about their boyfriend/girlfriend. But, how can someone know that they are in love after a few days of knowing the other? Well, I guess I don’t know. But then all of the sudden they might break up because it isn’t working or something like that. And they would be just devastated, they would go into depression mode. I mean really? YOU HAVE BEEN GOING OUT FOR ONLY WHAT? A WEEK? I mean really? How can some one say they are ready for more after a week or so, and then get dumped at start crying for months. It is different if you were dating for a few months or years. It would be different if you were engaged or married. But I guess it depends on the person, and how much they take things seriously. I mean don’t get me wrong you have to take love, and relationships seriously. But some people put too much of their soul into it and then they are left with a big wound. But, sometimes that is human nature, and we cannot stop it no matter what.

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A question that many people have a hard time answering is “Does God exist?” The Shack is a book that tries to explain God and his existence. Mack had lost his daughter and suffered greatly until he got a mysterious note telling him to go to the Shack where is daughter was murdered. Mack felt like God was turning on him because this terrible thing had happened to him and he felt like he was suffering and God was punishing him because of his past. William Paul Young quotes in an interview “There’s many people with great saddness.” This is a book that anyone can turn to to help them forgive and have a happy life. God is good and he can help you conqure your downfalls in life and live a happy life and then live eternally with him.

Does God punish people? My beliefs are that God doesn’t punish people he just doesn’t alter life, bad things in life are going to happen and people learn from those bad things. Joan is a great family friend and she has terminal cancer. She has survived the cancer three times but it has came back and continues to spread and she has now been taken off her medications because now the cancer can’t be beaten.

Joan is the one that introduced the Shack to my family. She told us that this book had changed her life and opened her eyes more in God’s direction. Joan believes that her disease is something that she can learn from, something that has potentially opened her eyes to something don’t want to face, death. Joan was at my house visiting and my sister commented on a pair of earrings that she was wearing, she took them out at that and gave them to sister. She says material things aren’t a big thing in life and that the disease has taught her that so every time some one likes something of hers she gives it to them.

Joan explains to me the way the book has effected her life. God doesn’t want people to suffer and he doesn’t want people to fear him. God excepting. In the book Papa (God) explains to Mack that everyone is his child, that even the man that murdered his daughter is his child. God doesn’t want to see his children suffer and everyone on earth is one of his children, there is too much suffering. If there was no evil or suffering on earth then humans would be living an eternal life and we wouldn’t have to suffer because we would be living our eternal life. Nickelback quotes in a song “If everyone cared and nobody cried, if everyone loved and nobody lied , if everyone shared and swallowed their pride then we’d see the day when nobody died.” This chorus seems like a true statement. If there wasn’t any hurt and evil then people would be pure they wouldn’t have to ask God for forgiveness because there would be no sins to forgive there would only be love and so much more greatness.

Joan is proof there is a God, and that God gives us free will. Joan survived cancer three times, which is a huge micalcle. Without God in her life she may not have been strong or brave enough to take on such a deadly disease with no fear that she would go into no where after death. Joan doesn’t show fear even though everyday may be fearful for her. Even though her survival was a miracle she took control of it by choosing to do certain treatments and living the her life to the fullest to get closer to God. She is a person that reflects God through her she is someone that isn’t fake, she is caring, and just a beautiful person all around. Joan is an amazing influence and I’m happy that I am lucky enough to have someone in my life to open my eyes to fear but show the positives through it and I think thats exactly the message the shack was trying to get across. There are “great saddnesses” in life but if you forgive then you will have a great positve and a weight will be lifted, and thats all God wants, his children to be happy.

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We all should know what is and isn’t human in this world, but for some of us we don’t know what is human. For me I think slaughtering horses is inhumane because of the facility they are in, the conditions, transportation that they use and the status that they have. Horses have a good purpose, and some of you may not think so, but for those who are involved in the horse world I hope you know that it happens to some really good and young famous horses. Even wild horses are killed just for money. And I am sorry to say that I don’t accept it, you guys might but I don’t. And do people do this intentionally?

In 2009 approximately 93,000 horses were slaughtered in Canada, the horses that are slaughtered in Canada is primarily used  for meat in Asian and European countries. There is a process that starts from the auctions and ends with packing. The horses are brought to slaughter in any conditions old to young, sick to healthy, injured or even pregnant! Sickening if you ask me. These horses are unwanted! Most of the times the owners have hopes on selling their horses to good homes in auctions, but sadly approximately 50% of the horses sold in rural auctions are sold to “Killer Buyers” These people deal with getting the horses to slaughter houses. If you have ever been to a horse auction you can tell who is a “Killer Buyer” because they will buy any horse no matter what their condition is. And they buy more horses than any other person at the auction. Soon enough the horses belong to these people and nobody will do anything about it.

The transportation is even worse, they are traveled in double decker trailers. These trailers aren’t ment to carry horses, they are ment to carry cattle. These trailers are not suitable for carrying horses, they are cramped and if you have ever looked inside of a double decker trailer you can see that there are two floors and when horses are in there they are cramped, and since people shove too many horses in there they get trampled, and eventually injured severely or dead. The people who haul these animals travel for long distances, so they eventually get dehydrated and starved. No food or water is given to them. Have you ever traveled along distance and never had a snack or a drink of water. Well it is worse for horses too, because they are cramped and they are also suffering from heat exhaustion. So once they reach their destination they are weak, scared and that is when more trouble starts. As they unload these horses, they use forceful methods and the horses are getting trampled, injuring themselves more and more. Weak, sick, hungry, dehydrated, and scared. This isn’t the right combination for a horses nature. For me a nature of a horse is strength, courage, beautiful, powerful, divine, and I am sure there are lots of good words to describe them. Just think of the people who are involved in this process, just try to imagine what is going through their minds, I just can’t imagine what is even going through their minds.

The conditions of the horse during travel is hideous. Think about it would you like to be stuffed in a small cramped space for a few days with no food or water. You aren’t allowed to get out until the finial destination, imagine how you feel afterward. For a horse being cramped with more horses in a smaller space it would be like that. But just think about being in a vehicle accident? Whoa, that is one mess to clean up. There are a few double deckers get into wreaks and along with that you have frightened injured horses scattered. There are so many volunteers that help out when this kind of situation happens. But not all horses are hauled in double deckers, they can be transported in a normal stock or horse trailer too, just so that they go by unnoticed.

Once the horses are unloaded they are grouped together in small or large pens depending on their time of slaughter. The slaughter-house is hot, and cramped, this only increases the horses anxiety shock. They send them through chutes and small routes  and then there is a dead-end. No where to go, but backwards, unfortunately there are more horses behind, pushing them aside. Or a gate is shut behind them. At that dead ends the horse’s life No second chances. Some people hack at the horses spines with knives to make them paralyzed, so that they don’t feel. But hold on there, just because someone is hacking at someone else’s spine doesn’t mean that they still can’t feel. The ways that these people torture these precious animal. Just think of it, would you like it if someone was hacking at your dog or cat? I don’t think so. Then they are shot in the forehead or a bolt is pressed in the middle of their forehead. That is it, no more life, the tears stop rolling, the image is shattered, the broken heart beats no longer, no second chances in life, no one to care about them & love them. The dead horses are then sent for processing, and shipped to different countries.

It doesn’t matter what kind of horse from a draft Clydesdale, to light Thoroughbred, all the way to a small Welsh pony. A mule, donkey or a miniature Donkey. A pregnant mare who’s foal doesn’t even get a chance to live it life. The foals don’t even get a chance to see their own mom. People think that once the horses are loaded up in the chute for their time, they will fall asleep soundly and feel no pain. But that is just the image of a horse who belongs to a loving family. In The Slaughter house you will hear the loud, piercing screams of a horse. To me no animal should scream, there is no reason to scream for a horse, unfortunately there is a reason. I never ever want to hear a horse that screams, just sickening that people think that they can do this. No animal

should be treated this way. Does this photo on the right seem like the hors

e is happy and fine for what the people are doing to them? Well personally I don’t think so.

Alberta has some wild horses, but of course there are people taking these horses for the slaughter-house. With the numbers of wild horses that are left in Alberta, this is a problem. With all of this going on, how can it go undetected? The government literally let these people go by and so do the police. There have been a number of vehicle accidents involving double-decker trailers filled with horses, but we never hear about them on the news. Why don’t we? Is the government scared to let people know the truth?

How heartless is this act? How can we just let this go by and act as if nothing is wrong. Some people in this world have the heart to actually take in these animals, care a nurture them. Love them and treat the kindly, And Some people donate money, some rescue them. To horses I am sure that  they are grateful. And if any of you guys are reading this and own any horse of any breed and they are spoiled and rotten then you will eventually learn that they are grateful for having you for a owner. The horse may not know what would come for them in the future. And sometimes. A horse doesn’t have a chance after you sell them. There have been many horses that have been rescued,  and the conditions that they are rescued in is horrible. Some are just skin sitting on bones, and some are in perfect conditions. Which horse do you think is going for slaughter on the right?

Here are some small facts that I found out a few days ago when I started writing about this topic. A year ago, there were 3 plants in Canada (2 in Quebec and 1 in Alberta.). Today, this number has doubled (2 in Quebec, 2 in Alberta, 1 in BC and 1 Saskatchewan.). In the United Stated all the slaughter houses were shut down, and laws were put up . However a loop hole was created, the USA Kill Buyers continue to ship the horses to Mexico and Canada.

You know, I have always wondered what went through a horses mind when they are going through this. What kind of pain it feels, will they ever forgive humans again? Now there is something interesting, Horses are forgiving creatures! Horses can forgive us when we get angry, when we yell or smack them. Even when we do this kind of stuff to them. People have rescued horses from slaughter houses, and a few days later the horse is in love with the rescuer! That proves that horses are forgiving. Are we as forgiving as them? No, we have a harder time to forgive, especially when people have done us wrong. So why do we have to think that horses can’t forgive. Some people believe that animals find it easier to forgive than people. I think we find ways and reasons to make forgiveness harder. And some people believe that it is harder because of the emotions we carry. Well animals also have emotions, maybe not as strong as us, but we need logic and emotions to forgive.

You know for me horses are beautiful creatures. Magnificent, Majestic rulers. Horses complete my life, well along with fishing of course! But, I don’t think most of us realize how much horses affect us especially those in the horse world! You know how can we take something that God has created? God created these creatures and we are taking their lives. What have they done to us to deserve this? Nothing that I know of. People who are into horses love the way they move, the way they look, the way you can connected to them. The way that their spirits are free. People have very different opinions about horses, good and bad. You can tell a horses personality by looking at them, they way they walk, stand, run. The way they treat other horses, and how they treat people. The best way to tell the personality is to look at the features on the face, and the eyes. I have been studying about how to tell horses personalities, and I have learned quite a bit. It is amazing what you can learn from animals. Looking at the horse you can figure out if they are gentle, if they got an aggressive personality, if they got a mysterious personality, if they are playful, or if they are patient. There is a more that you can figure out, if you take the time to understand them. You know if you listen closely, the horse will tell you what they want. And horses are also good listeners, they don’t tell secrets. Horses are magical, but why? Is it their fierce spirit? They way that they act as if they are wild? I just don’t know. And I just love riding. it is such a wonderful experience. I find that you fly because your not on the ground and your sitting  on an animal that races the sun. And chases the wind. They let you soar with them, without any worries on your mind. I hope that you get to experience something like that someday. They way you are connected with the horse is just amazing, some people only ride just one horse. And some people use many horses. One of my favorite quotes about horses is “A Horse Is Worth More Than Riches.”. To me it means than horses are more valuable than just about anything in the world. So I don’t know about you but I definitely don’t want to see the life being taken from these animals. Especially if it was one of my own horses, I don’t know what I would do if

one of our horses ended up in that kind of situation. This is a poem about horses that I wrote one day and I heard that people like it so I guess I thought I would post it, because it kinda suited this topic.

~Thunder Roles across the ground.
Lightning flashes across the sky.
You can feel the fire within.
See the spark of freedom in their eyes.
The wind whipping through their manes.
Their strength rippling over their bodies and they run.
Their wildness is a beauty to the eye.
These animals are both beauty and beast.
But the beast is tame and the beauty is wild.~

Here is a video about this kind of stuff. So please read the caption beside. WARNING: VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED!! SOME CONTENT MAY BE DISTURBING!!

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The Shack by Wm. Paul Young describes how people react to tragedy or loss in their lives, that it is natural to feel anger and hatred sometimes, what are peoples sources of strength, and what characteristics make people liked and respected. Mack losing his daughter Missy made him feel anger towards God and religion. While Mack visited the shack he learned that his family and faith are sources of strength for him. After returning from the shack Mack was a changed man for the better.

When Missy died, Mack reacted in a negative way. It is hard to react in a positive way when we are faced with tragedy, or the loss of a family member. Mack slowly receded into his own personal shell. Slowly Mack stopped socializing with his friends. Finally Mack stopped leaving the house. When faced with the loss of his daughter, he reacted so negatively that it started to affect his whole family in an even more negative way. Nan, Mack’s wife try’s her hardest to hold the family together. Kate the oldest daughter blames her self for her sisters death and shows it every day on her face. Mack’s negative attitude has influenced his family so greatly that it is on the verge of falling apart.

Losing a loved one can make any person feel anger towards religion and God. When Missy died the way she did, Mack stopped going to church and stopped praying to God. Mack went to church every sunday and put all his faith in God. Naturally, Mack felt cheated by God because he spent a lot of time and faith in God, but God didn’t save his little girl when she needed him the most. Feeling anger and hate would without a doubt come natural to any parent that loses their child. Most parents would feel anger towards themselves for not protecting their children, but they would be even more angry at the person that hurt their child. Anger is a natural human emotion. This emotion usually comes from pain. The pain of losing a loved one would be no different.

When Mack returned from the shack, he learned his lesson and realized that he was the main source of strength for his family. Mack is the key stone that holds him family together. Without him they would fall apart. Leading up to Mack’s trip to the shack, His family was falling apart. While make was receding into his shell, he stopped being the main supporter for his family. Every body started to become distant. When the rocks on a bridge start to separate, the bridge becomes unstable and will eventually fall apart. After shack realizes that he needs to be there for his family, he starts to provide better support for everybody. In doing this, the Phillips family becomes stronger than ever. Eventually, everybody became a source of strength for one another.

All the qualities that made Mack liked and respected, were lost after Mack lost his daughter. The same friendly and carefree man was lost. Mack made a huge emotional barrier between him self and the out side world. This barrier made people forget what kind of man Mack really was. It was not until after Mack got back from the shack, that people started to see Mack’s better qualities. All of the attitudes and emotions, that people knew Mack for started to come back after Mack’s experience at the shack. The qualities that make people liked and respected are sometimes lost when tragedy has hit them, or even when they have to deal with times of stress.

The Shack covers many aspects of the human condition. A person could learn a lot about themselves, and their faith in good by reading this book. It is important to keep pursuing a life of self discovery, and a life of faith. Without learning and discovering, there can be no movement in the world. What we do with our lives is up to us, and us alone.

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Near the beginning of the book, Mack travels up to the shack in search of answers and revenge. Unexpectedly, he meets with “Papa”, Jesus and Sarayu. William Paul Young breaks the stereotypical image of God by making Him a black women. I liked how he did that because this makes people think about how God can be anyone and does not discriminate against race.

The book, The Shack, also brought up the idea about the way humans have false control. When Mack first returned to the shack, he was full of an anger and bitterness called the great sadness. Those emotions obstructed Mack to get closer to God. But when Mack was with Sophia, she put him on the spot when she asked him to send only one of his children to heaven while the rest would go to hell. By putting Mack in this situation, it taught him to love like Jesus and the power that humans think they have is fake. When Mack learned how to love like Jesus, he was able to release a little of that anger and bitterness.

This part in the book would help many people because, like Mack, everyone gets hurt by another whether it’s intentional or not. Typically, when we experience tragic events, we become terrified it will happen again or completely swallowed in the desparity. But I’ve learned that if you hold onto the reasons you should still be upset, that anger will consume you. I’ve seen where people build up walls that makes any outside relationship extremely difficult.

Forgiveness was another huge issue for Mack. Not only did he find it nearly impossible to forgive the man who killed Missy, the forgiveness of his father seemed to be equally impossible. Forgiveness is usually the hardest part because that makes everything final. Whatever happened is done and letting go of it all is within reach. At this part in the book Mack asked Papa if he forgave the killer, would he disappoint Missy. People are afraid that if they forgive the person that caused that hurt, they’re letting him get away. That forgiving will allow that person to think that what they did was okay. What forgiveness really does is bring closure to the incident.

Most people lose sight of the relief that forgiveness can bring. That guilt and anger and bitterness we carry around with us fades out when we accept what happened and forgive. In the Shack, it only took Mack a weekend to forgive the killer and his father which we all know would take more than a weekend to forgive something that drastic when we would have all that caged in anger. But the point I think that Wm Paul Young was trying to make was that we shouldn’t have to go through that journey alone. We can rely on God to help us. Mack also made the arguement that it was God’s fault that Missy had died. I think that many people can relate to that line because we’ve all been through tragities and we thought that it was God’s way of punishing us. But we can’t always see the bigger picture so we should all try to trust more in God.

At the very end of the book, when Mack finds out that Kate has been blaming herself for Missy’s murder, he is given a choice to stay with God or go back to his family. This tests if humans really have free will or not. Yes, Mack is given a choice to leave or stay but he knows the right thing to is to go back and help Kate. He put himself and what he wanted on hold so his daughter could be happy again and that is what we should all strive for. Being able to put others first.

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The Boy in the Moon is a biography about a man who has a disabled son. His son has disability called CFC (Cardiofaciocutaneous). CFC syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that affects the heart, facial features, and skin. It is a syndrome that is equally seen in males and females but is very rare. Children with CFC syndrome may have noticeable features such as sparse brows, slanted eyes, curly hair and skin problems.

Ian Brown, the father of the disabled boy, wrote the book to tell people about his struggles and joy that have come from raising a special boy. Walker is thirteen and battles with his disability day-to-day. Ian explains in the book that Walker constantly pounds him self in the head, he doesn’t know why but he has a theory that maybe Walker is mad at himself for not being normal. But who’s to say that Walker isn’t normal? He quotes in the book “sometimes watching Walker is like looking at the moon: you see the face of the man in the moon, yet you know there’s actually no man there. But if Walker is so insubstantial, why does he feel so important? What is he trying to show me?”

The man in the moon is not actually there why does Ian Brown talk about his son like he has no conscience? People question whether people with disabilities have thoughts or not, it’s almost like they are comparing to a dog. Do you think a dog has feelings like a human, animals do have personality, and a sense of humor, but is it fair for us to judge people like Walker and question his humanity? But really animals have the ability to learn just as Walker does, along with any other human being classified as normal. Another quote from the book: “Did he know he was ‘painting’ when the teacher was guiding his hands? He had a friend, Jeremy, but did he know what a friend was?” It’s hard to tell when you can’t communicate with someone like Walker, but God makes every one special and there’s a purpose for people like this.

Ian Brown says “what I cared about was whether he had a sense of himself, an inner life.” There’s many opinions on things like this but you really have to understand people with disabilities. They can reflect the best through people without disabilities. But thinking about it, is it possible for someone to not have a disability. No one is perfect, that’s the way humans were designed. Some people are smart, some are not, some are artistic, some just aren’t, there’s many things that people can’t do does it mean that any one is better than the next person?

Disabled people are looked over everyday. Their abilities aren’t recognized compared to people who can handle anything easily. Depending on the disability depends on how much the person can accomplish. Having a cousin with down syndrome really opened my eyes as I got older. Growing up I looked past his disability and we were very close. I learned as I grew that he wasn’t developing the same way any other boy of my age was supposed to be. I was surprised to find out that he was handicapped because I grew up thinking that he was just like me. I also took care of a disabled girl named Cassie. She can’t talk or walk by herself, and is comparable with Walker in many ways, but she is a great person. I can have a bad day then when I visit Cassie she can turn it around just with a laugh. Even though people have a disabilities it doesn’t make them a bad or scary person or a person that is completely incapable. They may not be able to do absolutely everything that I can do mentally, or physically but they are a great people that take on life with a positive attitude. People like Walker or my cousin Ryan, or Cassie shouldn’t be judged or looked down upon because they look different, or because they can’t do certain things. They should be embraced and noticed in positive ways because good things can come from them. I have personally learnt though people like them that God has a purpose for everyone and I never realized that they would be the one’s to teach me that with out even physically being able to tell me.

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