There is so little time for us all, we need to be able to say what we want quickly and to as many people as possible. So before more of it slips away, I'd like to acknowledge a few people who made a very difficult year a little softer. We had a lot of losses in our family and friends circle...the last of which reeled me back on my heels.
From the very beginning of adopting our senior, blind, rescue hound almost two years ago we knew we wouldn't have a lot of time with him.
Our old man brought with him quite a list of maladies and had to be tended to by our vet and staff frequently. They treated him with patience, kindness, and dignity despite his fear aggression, and "Cujo" demeanor while in their office. This was a dog with a rough past but it didn't matter, he was ours and deserved the best we could give him.
A few weeks before Christmas, Rocky's conditions culminated for the worse. We consulted with Lap of Love and made the difficult decision to let him go. He left us peacefully, at home, on his favorite blanket with a Bubba burger breakfast.
He was a cat in a dog's body; the quirkiest animal I've ever met but a constant in my daily life and while I'm still wobbling around getting used to the silence, I was lucky to have had something that made saying goodbye so hard.
As you can expect, the motivation to work on procuring donations, writing, and fundraising went up like a wisp of smoke but as luck would have it I had received a call at the beginning of Fall from the Hamden Womens Group asking about our project. Not knowing what to expect I tucked the exchange away in the back of my mind.
A week or so into December, I got an update from the guy's clinician telling me they had raised over $120 to purchase gift cards for them for the holidays....So, Shout Out & Thank You Linda M. and Ladies of the Women's Group!
And from the bottom of my heart, Thank You, Mary C. for coordinating what I wasn't able to muster this year.
It really does, "Take A Village"~
The work is hard. The road ahead is extremely daunting. There is much to be despondent about. Yet this is the biggest opportunity that we have ever seen to fully unearth all of our talents, gifts, and our collective humanity…. to be all that we can be. For if we do not, we will no longer be standing on the edge of the abyss. We will be in the abyss. There is only one way forward, and we know, intrinsically how to get there. To forge ahead with love, hope, kindness, and a determination to celebrate that which unites us – our humanity. And DO the work. Not writing or talking about it. DOING.
