Huh. Irony.

Today I had a fairly negative experience I will not write about. However, it was an epiphany. It made me appreciate people I have met through my life, through rescue, through friendship, through my many jobs, who are kind, understanding, challenging, and thoughtful.

I think I have received more than my share of these kind people. They deserve more back from me, I think. They invest in me, and I should be investing more in them. In fellow caretakers, in my family, in my husband, in the animals I care for. That is what I learned today.

On an unrelated note, I received two email messages tonight. One from a young woman who will be adopting Maestro. One from two young women who cared for our Fast Food Ferals in the past and will be in town and would like to come for a visit.

In those short email messages, you experience that there is hope for tomorrow, in something so simple as young professionals who care. If they care so much about something so simple as a cat, and a small cat shelter in Spencer NY, imagine what impact they will have in much wider venues throughout their lives.

Yup, I had a fairly negative experience today. It was a revelation to me. At first it made me angry, and then it made me laugh. It made me realize how much good there is in my life, and that it is time to start paying more attention to what is clearly generous and good, and discard that which cripples.

I want to thank each and every one of you who visits here regularly. Tonight when I went out the cats, and enjoyed their beautiful presence, and acknowledged that they would...each and every one of them...someday get homes...I realized I had trekked far off of the appropriate path for a few years. I learned a lot from it, but it is time to come home. I would like to promise them that they will no longer be neglected in the name of other commitments that are less generous and kind.

Generosity visits me daily. Today I have learned that it is generosity that is most important and should be returned. And that there is nothing but futility in trying to live up to the unattainable.

When I clicked over to xkcd and saw their message today...well, I'm not sure why they considered it for their "comic" today, or what inspired it. I expect that it's a riff on those online games you play, and play, and play, never winning, and therefore never allowing yourself to give up and leave.

It was very appropriate for me. There is no reason to keep playing a losing game. And by just realizing that...well, you've won.

"It's OK. You're free."

Thanks. It's OK. I'm free.

Thank you all. I think it's going to be a very good year.

Tell a person who has been kind to you, that you appreciate them. Dust off a thank- you card and place it in the mail. Leave a flower. Look someone in the eyes and just. plain. smile. Hug your cat. Hug your dog. Tell your husband or partner that you are so glad you found them.

It's OK. You're free.