Pat's View: Inspirational Stories

Have you ever experienced an electric fence? When my oldest granddaughter, Karyn, was a baby, I was invited to speak at a church in a rural community. They booked a room for me in a gorgeous bed and breakfast in the middle of farmland. The land adjacent to the house was a pasture with cows and a donkey. Saturday morning Wayne brought Karyn and joined me for the remainder of the meetings. That evening we strolled along the electric fence to let Karyn see the animals. The friendly donkey saw us and started walking toward us so we stopped. The donkey didn’t  stop. He touched the fence with his nose and had what we Southerner’s call a “hissy fit!” Maybe he wanted to be fed or petted; or perhaps he had never encountered the fence before, but when he touched that fence his pain was plain. He stood there and brayed and brayed and brayed just glaring at us. He didn’t stop braying until we walked away. So, when I read Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman’s “electric fence” story in her book “Mommy Power,” I could relate. (It’s