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Find Joy Where You Can

It's been a tough week in this country, with a monster tornado threatening so many people's lives and homes, and the outrageous election we are entering into just gets more bizarre by the day. It seems the candidates have some crazy skeleton surface every few days and everything turns to discussing that, then some disaster befalls the nation, week after week, it goes. The future, our future, is so uncertain. Tell those that matter, that they matter to you. Every day. It matters. 

It's important to find joy in the little things that can take us away from the news and horror going on around us. It's important to find the good things in our world to hold onto with a ferocity that brings them to the forefront. I think of my joys, another daughter and baby are soon to join our family and widen the circle of love, I love my partner and am loved back, my family, including our four-legged babies are all healthy and happy. They all know I love them. Because I tell them every single time I talk to them. I tell the fur babies goodbye in the morning when I leave, to have fun, and that I'll see them soon. Find the little things that give you joy, so you can handle those that don't. 

Each morning on our walk with the dogs we look forward to a George sighting. George is the elderly gent who walks every morning with his stick and bag, in which he puts all the garbage (trash for my US friends) he picks up along the pathway. We seriously have the cleanest sidewalks in all of Encinitas! He gets slower with each passing year, and leans more heavily on his stick, but 5:45am seldom comes and goes without a George sighting. We worry if we miss him a few days in a row, but when next we see him it's such a delight. It's become a real treat for both him and us, Barnaby starts to vibrate and wag from his tail to his head as soon as he spots him in the distance. Each morning we wave, say "Hi George!", and hopefully, if he's on our side of the street, he and Barnaby get a little lean-in cuddle. He tells us he loves our dogs. This morning he asked why Tailor had the Halti around her nose, thought she was vicious and it was a muzzle, from which a conversation ensued to explain that she had had a tumor in her tonsil removed and so we didn't want to put pressure on her neck when we walked her. "Who knew dogs had tonsils?" We then went on to marvel at what could be done, and that animals really are very similar to us physiologically and get a lot of the same ailments as humans. He smiled and nodded, and said "You can learn something new everyday... if you just pay attention." 

We love George, for his contribution to cleaning our streets, for being such a dear, friendly man, and for his wisdom. It pays to take the time to stop and learn your neighbor's name, you never know what joy you can receive from random encounters with the human race. 

This weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada, I for one, give much thanks for all my family, friends, my job, all of our "stuff," but most of all because I am loved and I love back.

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