In the Sacred Scriptures we have a distillation of the best advice our ancestors in the faith had to offer. There are stories that provide us with examples – both bad and good – of how we might live our lives. There are exhortations in the sacred 66 to do the one thing and not do the other. Dip a toe into these texts and there is a better than average chance you will find texts that address your situation in life at the present moment.

Surely Debbie McDonald, Brentina, and the crowd of people who support them in their undertakings (that would include you and me, dear reader) are sorting through the thoughts and emotions that arise as we read the news reported earlier today here on the pages of Dressage Daily. The need to withdraw from the dressage competition at the 2006 World Equestrian Games surely qualifies under the category of a “burden.” A weighty matter that, if we had our ‘druthers, we would be shed of.

None of us, I hope, has the slightest doubt that Debbie and Bob and those who advise them have made the only choice possible given Brentina’s physical condition. Still, it is a burden. The Scriptures to which I have referred above do, in fact, offer all who will avail themselves of it many pieces of learned counsel. I will dip not a toe but a hand therein and toss them up for your and Debbie’s and my consumption (I expect that Brentina already knows how to cope with the weight she bears…God takes such good care of those we call “dumb” animals).

Here is the first bit of encouragement, it comes from the book of Psalms: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22). The second comes from a bit closer to our age and from a personage known to many of us: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (The Gospel according to Matthew 11:29-30)

These ancestors in the faith, the Psalmist and Jesus of Nazareth, obviously knew a thing or two about shouldering afflictions. They and our other forebears survived the predicaments that the world threw at them. With the supportive thoughts and prayers and kind words of the likes of us, this tempest in the lives of two athletes will be calmed, the keel of the ship righted, and the course stayed.