Oops

Uh, so for the 12th Day of Thanksgiving (yesterday)…

Okay, I forgot. I even looked at this stupid blog a few times and it just never registered I needed to mention something I'm thankful for. So now….

For yesterday, I'll say that I'm thankful for all the good people in the world. In particular, the ones who work tirelessly to help animals who are abused and neglected. I couldn't do it, myself — the grief and anger at how cruel and stupid some people can be would overwhelm me, and I'd have a gun pointed at them or myself in no time flat. But I'm very, very grateful that others are willing to take it on, and I support them as much as I can.

(Speaking of which, Noah's Arks Rescue in Okatie, SC, is a great one! If you click here every day during the Shelter Challenges, they have a chance to get a sizable donation. The site will even send you reminders every day. Please click for them!)

These people are so good, and so knowledgeable! They have incredible patience, as well as resilience, perseverance and commitment. It takes a certain personality, a particular type of person, to do it. And that's true of so many things! Hospice workers, who tenderly stand by their patients at their most vulnerable. Some politicians (I know, I know, but I'm acquainted with a few local politicians who actually serve because they feel like they can do some good). Oncologists. "Community leaders," the ones who keep charities and good causes going, who go to endless meetings and spend countless hours doing things that solve problems for other people, just because it needs to be done. Aid workers who go all over the world to help recover and rebuild after disasters. Pediatric medicine specialists. I once knew a United Methodist pastor who was a retired pediatric intensive care nurse, and I asked her if she couldn't have just hit herself in the head with a hammer instead. She responded that throughout her career she had received so much more than she had ever given.

That. That type of person.

That's what I'm thankful for. I'm emphatically not one of them, myself, but I'm infinitely grateful that they exist and that they do what they do.

These people might just be the reason that good keeps outweighing bad in the world, even if sometimes it's just barely. They're there, and I'm thankful for them.