Oatmeal. A meal made from oats. Simple enough? To some, it is a dish that brings but a wisp of brightness to an otherwise dark and dreary day. A number see it as a jolt of energy that represents the hope, laughter and joy that comes as steadfast as the new day. To others, a bland, tasteless and uninspired bowl filled with the same empty promises that the day imposes. It is a ruse disguised as promise that will soon turn into remorse and regret for awaiting a sun that will not shine. This is a story that revolves around a young filly who found hope in the resounding darkness.
Many a day had passed since she had been away from the Farm, for that was her home. A run-down house and a barn proved her only recompense for living in there all her life. Hope, joy or even a reason to smile was nowhere in sight. She is called Diane. She had two sisters and parents, all destined to naught but rocks. They had no entitlement to enjoyment, nor were they blessed with the opportunity to experience genuine happiness. Diane led a simple life. She demanded no luxuries, nor meaningless endearment. She did not receive these privileges either way. Diane awakes to the morose and troubling sight of the farm in the dull and unceasing cycle of her life. Then, she and her sisters collect the excess of the past day’s crop for their morning meal. Their mother then prepares one of the only meals they ever have known, oatmeal. Indeed the same dull, bland and uninspiring dish free from innovation. Both her siblings have always been saddened upon the sight of this redundant course. Diane, however, for some mundane reason, had not seen this as a disheartening fact of life. She had seen this as what she described as a something she called "hope".