The red, blue, and white horses galloped through my childhood. They decorated and brightened the bookshelves and end tables of my family home. It seemed like everyone we knew had these horses–aunts & uncles, friends, neighbors. The wooden horses are carved in Sweden in the province of Dalarna, the home territory of my grandparents, and so have extra meaning in the Holmsten and Barkstrom extended families. On my bookshelf now, they remind me of my tribal roots in the land where my story started many generations ago.