Day 7 Thankfulness and Giving

On, this the last day of my seven days of thankfulness and giving, I reserved it for my new family.  Without boring  you with a historical view of my life through the looking glass, just look back at day 1 of this practice to see that I made a lot of mistakes along the way and that my journey to my new family was very much like Linus in that it took me a long time, the ability for Andy to break down a lot of walls to be able to trust again, and having faith in the path to them.

To help you see why I am so thankful for my new family, I want to tell you about a tradition that I was brought into even before I was officially a part of the family.  Christmas is a big deal and the entire family comes together for a week of visits, good food and board games.  On Christmas Eve, it is a more formal dinner with extended family, and we stay until the evening.  Then Andy and I leave for the evening to head back to our house.  At 4:30 AM we get up and make our way back to Andy’s parent’s house, because we get to play Santa Claus.  We sneak into the house with all the presents and put them under the tree, we eat the cookies left out for Santa (bonus) and fill the stockings.  Andy’s mom leaves us blankets so that we can nap on the couches until the kids wake in the morning. It is pure chaos in the morning when the kids wake, as they scream that Santa has been there and we joke that we slept through it again and that we can’t believe Santa is so quiet that we could be on the couch right by the fireplace and not wake up.

The second part of the tradition is that each year we make an ornament for Andy’s mom.  The ornament is from significant that has happened in our lives in the year.  When we come in, we hide them on the tree and when she gets up in the morning with the kids, she gets to search the tree to find all the new ornaments added for the year.  Andy’s mom and I have also entered into a tradition that we try to find the most meaningful gift for the other, you know, that one gift that would bring tears to the other’s eyes.  Two years ago, I won, but last year, last year she won and I may not ever be able to provide another gift with as much meaning, last year she gave me my very own stocking to be hung on the chimney. That stocking represented the greatest gift of all; the gift of family.

This, my friends, if you are still reading, is why I am so very thankful for my family. In the words of the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes and I am filled with love for all the wonderful people in my life, whom I chose to call my family.

Thank you for following my seven days. I have one extra charity on the list today, as I didn’t want to leave anyone off.  We have successfully provided donations to all charities on the wish list, 29 in total!!

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Maine Veterans Project (www.maineveteransproject.org )
• 22 Kill (www.22kill.com )
• Scottish SPCA (www.scottishspca.org )
• Human Society of Greater Dayton (www.hsdayton.org )
• Animal Welfare Institute (www.awionline.org )

Day 6 Thankfulness and Giving

I have saved the last two days of my thankfulness project to my two most special messages.  The first is my sweet Linus.  I want to tell you the story of how Linus came to live with us and how I am thankful to the universe for making sure that we found the right pup at the right time.  You see, our story does not start with Linus, so let me begin.

MadZ had been gone for two years, but I didn’t know if I was ready, or if our family was ready, to open our hearts again.  I had so many pups on Twitter that I had “adopted” and that was appeasing my need for giving love for a pup.  We had Panthor, a senior cat, and we knew that he needed to be a consideration before bringing another animal into the house, we didn’t want to disrupt his life, as his end of life care was important also, at 19 he has earned that right.

I had just come back from a run and my phone buzzed to tell me there was a news story that I might be interested in. I read this article about a pup called Dobby, he was 11 years old, had medical conditions and has family had surrendered him after trying to have him euthanized.  My heart just broke into a million pieces; how could a family keep a pup for 11 years and then simply decide they were done.  I immediately contacted Andy, and although I expected him to say that it wasn’t the right time yet, he surprised me and said, “Call, right now, we need to save this boy!”

So, I waited about 30 seconds (ok, maybe not that long) and immediately called.  It took hours for them to get back to me, only to learn that Dobby had found his forever home.  I was happy he was with someone who loved him, but I was sad, because I wanted that someone to be me.  I almost stopped at this point.  It wasn’t meant to be, the timing wasn’t right.  Yet, Andy encouraged me to keep looking, as we had found the perfect solution to our elderly cat, it was an elderly dog to love. So, we kept looking.

Our searching brought us to other senior Corgis, a senior Great Dane, finally to another pup from Old Dog Home that was a mixed breed.    Our key element, the pup had to be ok with cats, they had to be willing to leave our Panthor alone.  When I spoke with Melissa at Old Dog Home, she said that the other pup had just been adopted also; at this moment my heart was ready to break and I was about to decide that this just wasn’t meant to be, when she said to me, “…but would you consider meeting Linus. He is a black mixed breed dog, he has bad arthritis, and he is part Chow but he is a sweet boy and no one has considered him at all, not since we took him in in January.”

We met Linus on a Thursday and by Saturday he was living with us.  That first night, I questioned everything, because I worried, I had taken him away from his pack and he wouldn’t be able to adjust to a single dog household.  I cried much of that first night, worried as he paced and paced and could not settle down.  Little by little, this little man relaxed, he became comfortable in his new home and he stole all our hearts.

What I learned during this journey was that I need to be patient, I need to trust, and that I need to trust that sometimes the path I think is the correct one; may not be. So, when I say that I am thankful for Linus, I can only express to you what I can write, I can’t fully express to you how much love there is in my heart for him or how very thankful I am for the journey to him.

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Best Friends Pet Assistant Therapy (www.bestfriendspetassistedtherapy.org )
• Camp Chaos Puppy Rescue (www.campchaospuppyrescue.org )
• City Gospel Mission in Cincinnati (www.citygospelmission.org )
• Service Dog Project (www.servicedogproject.org )

Day 5 Thankfulness and Giving

Today, I want to focus on the arts and how thankful I am for them. Music, books, dance and writing have all played a huge factor in my life and taught me so much.

When I was a child and the world around me would be chaotic, I would reach for books to find a way to escape.  Without these books I would not have the imagination that I have today. It is magical to me when an author can put words to page and from this, I can recreate their vision in my own mind, to be able to get lost in the story. One of the best short stories I ever read was about a cherry tree.  The story was entirely written to describe the tree from all the senses.  As I read the story, it was as if I was there with the author seeing, smelling and touching the tree; it was amazing.

Music is a mix of memories and a form of escape for me also. When I hear a piece of music, I can be taken back to the exact moment when I first fell in love with the piece. There are pieces of music that will allow me to vent my anger, to cry out sadness, and to boost my feelings of happiness. Music allows me to escape into my feelings and to work through pain.  Music is a form of therapy for me and I would be lost without it.

I would never have thought dance would have become so important in my life, but it was a wonderful accident.  What was a whim, a single class to be a fun experience turned into seven years of learning discipline, how to be in-tune with my body, and the art of performing in front of an audience.  Dance allowed me to challenge myself; I was not perfect, I was not always even good, but I continued to push myself to learn to keep trying, which was a good metaphor for life.

Finally, if you are still following along with this blog and still reading, you will already know that writing is a wonderful way for me to work through how I am feeling.  Writing has helped me through many difficult times in my life; writing to my Dad’s best friend to share memories to help me heal and mourn his passing; writing about my thankfulness to help me refocus to what is most important; it teaches me to take a moment, to think things through and understand how and what I am feeling in the moment.

For these reasons I am, and will forever be, thankful for the arts and for what they have taught me and how they have healed me.

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

Ottawa Humane Society (www.ottawahumane.ca )

The Sato Project (www.thesatoproject.org)

Guide Dog Fund (www.guidedog.org )

Poppys Hedgehog Rescue (www.poppyscreche.org )

Day 4: Thankfulness and Giving

I can’t believe that we are halfway through our seven days already.  Thank you to all of those that have continued the journey with me, so on to day 4!

Part of this practice of thankfulness is having the ability to also give back to those in need, which made me reflect on this past year. For the first time in my adult life, I found myself between jobs, I tried calling it a sabbatical to ease my mind, but the fact was that the company that I had given 20 hour days, seven days a week, for three years decided that my job was no longer needed. I know this happens every day, but when it happened to me, it made me question my capabilities; my worthiness; my purpose.

Have I said already, the past few years have been tough ones?  Well, I digress; but what was the most difficult for me about losing my job was that I had finally reached a point in my life and with my employment that I was able to truly help some wonderful people. So, what I am most thankful for today is my job.  Not for how it makes my life easier (I am thankful for this) but for the fact that it allows me to do things like this practice of 7 days of thankfulness and giving.  I hope that these donations make a difference and that they help to spread kindness in the world around us.

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

Hope for Pondenco ( www.hopeforpodencos.com)

Underdog Pet Rescue (www.underdogpetrescue.org )

Beagle Freedom Project (www.bfp.org )

Lange Foundation (www.langefoundation.org )

Day 3 Thankfulness and Giving

Today I woke up and was filled with energy, which to be honest has been lacking for the last week. I am finding that taking this opportunity to practice thankfulness is helping me to focus on the right things and not to waste energy in the wrong areas.  The lighter my heart, the happier I feel, and the more I can focus.  Well with that insightful wisdom, shall we move on to day 3?

For day three I wanted to write about a group of people who have become near and dear to me over the last two years.  In January of 2018, I was feeling a bit lost.  I had lost my dad about six months prior and I had lost my sweet MadZ pup two months to the day after my Dad passed. My heart was broken, and Andy sent me a text with a link to a twitter account called, @dog_feelings.  I still remember the tweet, “my ear. is inside out. and the human. is not home to fix it. i have put the household. on alert level. dark grey.” I read this and laughed until I cried; I created an account that day, just to follow the posts.

From this account, I found @notquiteold Theo-sophy from their comments, which lead me to becoming a “Twitter Lawyer” for @Oppopotamus Opie, and the list just kept on growing from there.  So many wonderful people that allowed me to “adopt” their dogs through Twitter.  There were no politics, there were no hate speeches, just pure love of animals and it healed my heart.  These friends, these animals, filled me with the love that I needed to bring Linus into my life, whom I will be thankful for in another blog. 

Through miles and across oceans, in all parts of the world, I have made friendship that I hold close to my heart.  For this, I am thankful for a silly phone app called Twitter. But, most importantly, I am thankful for all the friendships that I have been able to make.  If I listed you all here, I would not have enough room for listing the donations for today, so I will leave it to say that if you see this post, if you read this post, you are dear to me and I am thankful for you!

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Speranza Animal Rescue (www.speranzarescue.org )
• Rusty’s Angels Sanctuary (www.rustysangelssanctuary.org )
• Pug Hollow Sanctuary (www.pughollowsanctuary.org )
• ARVO (www.akrvo.org )

Day 2 Thankfulness and Giving

It is interesting, I had some personal things come up last week and it postponed my start to this practice for a day.  I found myself distracted and feeling like I couldn’t find my place to write about thankfulness and then last night, I forced myself to sit down and just write, to see what came to me.  This morning, my heart feels lighter, I feel happier, I feel more myself again. So, onto day 2!

During my trip down memory lane to take stock of my life, so many memories flooded in about my Dad.  I lost him 2.5 years ago. He was sick much of my childhood and by the time he was the age that I am today, he had had three heart attacks, had heart surgery, been through cardiac rehab twice, and had given up on living. He assumed because his parents had died young (all for treatable conditions that had they gone to the doctor they would have lived much longer) that he needed to burn the candle at both ends to get as much out of life as possible before it was gone. So, he didn’t take care of himself; he drank what he wanted, ate what he wanted and smoked as much as he wanted, until life played an interesting joke on him: life continued.

My father lived to be 78 years old; yet he had to live his life in a body that wouldn’t allow him to do the things that he wanted to do. During this period of his life, he had a lot of time to reflect and he would share his wisdom with me often. He told me that had he known he would live so long; he would have taken care of himself.  He would have still enjoyed life, but with perhaps a bit less abandon. He would have been able to enjoy time with his son and grandson, and he would have been able to live to see his daughter (me) find her way in the world,  and he would have gotten to meet her new family and come to love them and they could have loved him. He missed meeting my new family by three weeks.

I am a work in progress when it comes to taking care of myself. I will often give so much of myself to those that I love that I can collapse from exhaustion.  I am known for giving in to less than healthy food options when I am in need of comfort. And, I will often take on additional responsibilities so my family can exercise and eat healthy food, in lieu of my having time to exercise or relax. However, I did have my surgery this year that I have needed for over ten years, that allows me to breath. I have started (and stopped and started again) a healthy eating plan and I am trying to figure out a way to give myself time to exercise and to have down time to recharge.  Through all of this, I am so very thankful for good health.  I am thankful that my family is in good health, I am thankful that I am in good health, and I am committed to learning from my father’s mistakes in order to look back on a life where I was able to enjoy the world around me, my family and the flow of sweet animals that will be a part of my life now and in the future. I know that each day is a gift, so, it is time for me to go for a walk and appreciate the day that has been given to me.

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Painted Paws for Veterans (www.paintedpawsforveterans.org)
• Paws & Claws Humane Society (www.pawsandclaws.org )
• White Peony Farm (www.whitepeonyfarm.com )
• K9’s of Valor (www.k9sofvalor.org )

Day 1 Thankfulness and Giving

I try to practice thankfulness each day.  I have a special notebook, it has a special place for me to write it down, and yet, with all this and the fact that I have so much to be thankful for; I find myself getting wrapped up in the hectic pace of life and losing my focus. Therefore, each year around this time, I like to reflect on all there is to be thankful for and to practice kindness and sharing.  So, without further fanfare, I give you:

Day 1 Thankfulness and Giving

This year, more than most, I have needed to reflect on my past. While I would like to say it is all rainbows, butterflies and unicorns; because that would mean I have achieved adulthood, I have my life together, and I am Wonder Woman and can do it all. The fact of the matter is, my life has sometimes been made up of some really bad decisions or paths that I didn’t choose but also didn’t fight to change; which has led to a series of consequences that were sometimes hard to survive and move forward from. Yet, I find myself still here; a survivor, and someone who is thankful for these mistakes.

Oh, I know, it sounds crazy for me to say I am thankful for my mistakes but hear me out. I say this to you, because with every choice I have made, or every path I have traveled, the good and the bad, it has led me to the life that I am living in this moment. These mistakes, these consequences; they have forced me to grow, to be strong; they have made me who I am today.

A wise soul once told me, “You can’t know happiness without sadness, you can’t appreciate comfort without first experiencing pain, and you can’t know what you are capable of until you are pushed passed your breaking point.”

I am here today, with all my past experiences in tow, able to embrace happiness, let go of the pain and understand that I am a compassionate, caring, stubborn, opinionated, highly competitive, immortal Amazon (a.k.a. Wonder Woman!)

To show my appreciation and thankfulness for what I have today, I have made a $20.00 donation to each of the following charities:

• Old Friends Dog Sanctuary (www.ofsds.org)
• RSPCA of the UK (www.rspca.org.uk)
• Maddie & Friends, Inc.
• Columbus Diaper Bank (www.columbusdiaperbank.org)