Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A long and challenging year


2009 will go down in the annals of my lifestory as probably in the top then of hard years - even though no one died tragically, I was not sick (despite my best efforts to make myself so, I am merely rundown and looking forward to improvement in the New year) and so, it should, technically be a pretty medium kind of year, allthings considered. but, I learned a couple of very hard lessons that have been reappearing with increasing intensity over the past decade - chief of which is how easily I can lose sight of the things that really matter (home, work, dogs, spirit). We all have some kind of angry, aching hole in the centre of our hearts that will reach out and grab at whatever it thinks it wants, like a hungry baby grabbing at candy. I suffered major burnout in the spring - I still have to figure out how to do what I do and earn a living at it - but then summer became a bit of a nightmare, and by September I was an emotional wreck. Looking back, I see I shed some deeply cherished illusions, moved away from neurotic, limiting situations and have emerged with a renewed sense of self, purpose and esteem. but it wasn't easy. and the one being I can thank most of all, for sticking with me and always being truthful and direct, is Danny.

Because dogs never lie about love. We can all learn so much from that one simple fact.

Thank you Daniel. You are my everything. I thank the gods for you every day. I love you with all my heart.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Robin and Chester


I wish my brother could see this. Robin (my niece) is growing into such a beautiful special person. This is her letter to the British Columbia SPCA:


" I am following up from reading BARK magazine-the kindness guide. I looked on
our shampoo bottles for the bunny symbol (which means it's not tested on
animals). I googled the names of all our shampoos. It was very interesting,
but not that simple. For example: burt's bees. We (my mom and I) checked its
label and it said it was not tested on animals; but when we looked on the
Internet we found out that it was bought by Clorox. Clorox says that it does
"employ outside agencies to conduct animal tests...where required by the EPA
and other regulating bodies".

Thank you for helping me to learn about these issues. I really love animals
and want to use products that are not tested on them.

from,
Robin Horner, age 9
kids club member "


I'm so proud of her, just wanted to sharee. People are saying she gets her love of animals from me, but I think it comes all from within her. Her Mom is a great animal lover too and her Dad was one of the brightest people I've ever know, so Robin has a great gene pool, plus a very unique spirit all her own.
I'm so proud of her!