A simple nibble

Take a moment to look at this picture. To most people’s eyes, it appears just to be a horse taking a mouthfull of grass. To just a handful of others, it is much much more.

Imagine that, as a 4 year old, you were taken from your mother. You, up till this point, had depended on her solely for food and attention. You had only talked to a few other people in your life, those strange beings that thought you were adorable for a little while, and those that were in the small apartments next to yours (and even then, only through the walls). Suddenly you are thrown into a 10×10 cell, and the only thing you can see, sense, or smell are the people in the adjacent cells. You go from relying partially on your mom’s food, to completely relying on this new dry substance. For the next three and a half years or so, you are fed nothing but a cup of oatmeal and half a granola bar once a day. As time goes on, sometimes you get to eat every day, sometimes you don’t.

When you turn 19, you have to start learning to work. You and your bosses speak different languages, and exercise corporal punishment when you won’t do exactly what they say, even if the reason behind it is that you don’t understand. You eventually kind of figure out what they mean, and start to do it mindlessly, without even thinking. You come to only know the scolding words in your boss’ language, and work only to avoid them.

At age 23, suddenly another boss hires you and you’re thrown into another cell at another unfamliar place. He expects you to work even harder than your last, and do it perfectly. When you don’t do it perfectly, the buttons your press shock you. You try to avoid being shocked, but you simply cannot reach far enough to hit the right button. This continues until you are about 31. At this point, you’ve rarely been outside, and rarely eaten anything but basic oatmeal and granola, but thankfully your last boss has given you a bit more and of better quality.

At that age of 31, something changes. Someone comes along and opens up your cell’s door. They let you walk out into the sun and for the first time in far too long, you can be human again. Simply human.

This is a basic outline of Harper’s (formally Jube) life. The picture you see above is her first bite of grass in at least four and a half years. She sat there, her nose to the ground, chewing the grass with her eyes closed. The wind was blowing, and she turned to feel it in her face. For a moment, just a moment, all was calm and right with the world.

She’s let me know that she doesn’t understand much of what is going on in the outside world. She shies away from butterflies, cars, wind in higher grass, stepping on a stick, etc. But she doesn’t fully spook, only says “I don’t know what this is, I don’t know whether I should be afraid of it, so I’ll err on the side of caution.” Progress with her will either be slow or fast, I’m honestly not sure.

I thought I would share this beautiful moment with you, and give you some insight into her situation. I’ll be adding some more pictures of her soon.

Advertisement