Gratitude

Jennifer Vanderau
Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter

(4/2018) I turned 45 this year. Yowza. How in the world did that happen? Surely the math is somehow wrong. It has to be. Mom and dad can back me up on this one. Didn’t I just graduate? Wasn’t the ceremony just the other day? With the cap and the gown and the pomp and the circumstance?

Fantasy worlds are fun, aren’t they?

So, yeah. Forty-five. Without a clue in the world where the time went. It’s more than a little mind-boggling. I do have to say, though, if I have realized anything in my almost five decades on the planet (oh I so should not have typed it that way) it’s that one of the most important aspects of life is gratitude.

I’ve seen a lot of posts on Facebook about the importance of gratitude and I think, especially now, we really need to learn to embrace the concept. We have a lot of division in the world at the moment – it seems as though there are people out there who only want to argue and blame and threaten. And that’s tough to witness – it does affect us.

When we feel stress from what we see and hear it’s important to take just a moment to remember that there is and always will be something in your life for which to be grateful. Never forget that.

Are you still able to take breath into your body? Be grateful. There are those who aren’t.

Are you warm and able to eat? Be grateful. Others aren’t.

Are you relatively healthy? Do you have someone, even if it’s just one person, who genuinely loves you? Can you still find reason to smile?

You see where I’m going with this.

There’s so much for which to be grateful. I’m grateful for my friends and family – the ones who have my back and lift me up and make me feel good to be on the planet. I’m even grateful for the people who don’t like me or what I do or who I am. As much as it’s hard to realize (and some days it’s tougher than others), these folks can be real teachers for me.

At the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter, we have so very much to be grateful for, every year when I start this, I fear I will miss someone or something.

We have our animals. The reason we have all come together. The reason we get up in the morning. The one true, pure, good thing on this planet that teaches us every day about love and forgiveness and resilience. They’re everything.

We have our staff – the folks at the shelter and both of our thrift stores. They are the tireless group of people who work – sometimes even on holidays – to make sure the four-legged babies in these kennels are cared for. You guys are amazing.

Our board of directors are truly dedicated to a cause that’s near and dear to their hearts and they are a real asset to our animals.

Our adopters are the reason we are here. As much as we love our furry kids, we ultimately want to find them homes and we couldn’t do that without people being willing to take a chance on them. We have our hallways lined with photos of the happy homes we are able to find and there has been many a day in the past few months where I have just stood for a moment in front of those bulletin boards and just looked. It’s heartwarming.

Our donors keep the doors open. We have some incredible people who give – probably sometimes more than they technically can afford – because they want to help our babies. Some of them don’t even want a thank you – they’d rather we save the money from the stamp and the paper and the ink and the time to put back into our animals. That’s a truly poignant sentiment that is so very important this time of year.

Our volunteers help sort clothing at our thrift stores and walk dogs and clean cats and make sure our fundraisers are successful and there are so very many aspects of CVAS that wouldn’t happen without them.

We have a great group of vets in this area who also help our animals with surgeries and medication and even adoption!

Area businesses give time and supplies and donation drives and media outlets let me talk about our animals and send out important messages about the shelter (like the Emmitsburg News-Journal, through which I have met and talked to many wonderful animal-lovers that always make me smile).

We work with other rescues in the area and help each other out when we can. It’s refreshing to know there are folks just like us out there fighting the same fight each day for the four-legged ones in this world.

And we’re grateful for the people who take in strays off the street – we never get to see them to thank them because the animals never end up in the shelter, but they are heroes just as much as the rest of this list.

Gratitude really is so important. I’d go so far as to say it’s critical in this day and age and this time in the world.

Look around you. Take out the every day irritations and annoyances. I know they’re there, but ignore them for just a moment. Take a deep breath and let it out. Do it one more time.

Sit for a second or two and just be. Exist. Let the voice in your head that talks about lists and groceries and people who bug you and doctor’s appointment and other pressures just fade into the background.

Take another deep breath. Let it out.

Now. What do you have to be grateful for?

*****

Jennifer Vanderau is the Director of Communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter and can be reached at cvascomm@cvas-pets.org. The shelter accepts both monetary and pet supply donations. For more information, call the shelter at 717-263-5791 or visit the website www.cvas-pets.org. CVAS also operates thrift stores in Chambersburg and Shippensburg. Help support the animals at the shelter by donating to or shopping at the stores.