#4.... The Keeper ~

He had long since outlived the parades and the noise.
The flag he held had seen better days—much like the hands that still refused to let it fall.

But it wasn’t the grand moments he kept close.

It was this.
A small wooden horse, worn smooth by time… a reminder of a boy who once rode it across cabin floors, dreaming of wide fields and a country still finding its way.
A boy who believed that freedom was something you could hold, if only you held it tight enough.

Now, in the quiet, the old man kept watch—over memories, over promises, over all the little things that built a nation.

Because sometimes…
the strength of a country isn’t carried in its battles—
but in the hands that remember why they were fought.

A Sue Corlett Original Print
14 1/2 x 17 1/4
Painted Wood Frame