Hope and Joy

This year's Winter Solstice wasn't the end of the world.  Like every Winter Solstice, however, it marks the beginning of the end of the long nights, even though winter is just getting started.

Enjoying the expression of musical genius is the best way to celebrate most occasions, Solstice included.  Here's a couple of my favorites.

This is Lilly, one of the hoarder shepherds from 2011.
She was renamed Hope, appropriately enough.

Hope

Mary Chapin Carpenter has provided much of the soundtrack for my life and she best expresses the hope of the season:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IKcaP6wKG8

Hank is the essence of joy.

Joy

The other sentiment of the season is pure joy, and what better way to celebrate the non-end of the world than with a Beethoven flash mob? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo

















There are a lot of negative aspects to rescue and the emotions of anger and despair are ever present.  Anger about the way people treat, abuse, and neglect their dogs.  Despair over not being about to do enough in face of the overwhelming need and demands.  But the inability to fix it all and make the problem go away is not a reason to do nothing.  It may be an uphill battle, and may even be one that we can never win, but that's no reason not to try.

There's a parable about the two wolves inside us all, representing good and evil, battling for supremacy.  The question is posed:  "Which wolf wins?"  The answer:  "The one that we feed."  Feeding on hope and joy keeps anger and despair at bay.  That's the reason we've been doing this for over 12 years, and I've been blogging about it for over 4 years.  How much longer?  I don't know.  Lately I can't even bring myself to look at my email.  But then I think about people like my doggie dealer-- she's not a young woman, she's got significant health issues, and yet she keeps going.  How could I do any less?

This is hope, this is joy, this is rescue.

(I just pulled this picture from someone else's post on Facebook.
I don't know the dog, the guy, the organization, or the full story behind it.)