Pawprints From Space

So you want to volunteer for something, for some organization. It is a cause you are passionate about. You live it, you breathe it and you have tons of experience in an area that they can use. Before you jump in with both feet, all bright and shiny... stop and think. Volunteering is a lot like the office - there are politics. If you think for one minute that everyone is going to get along, that everything will be all sunshine and togetherness for the cause that's really nice Pollyanna but you're kidding yourself. People who are passionate about things are also very protective. Of their turf, their contributions, their ... whatever. It should be all about the cause (fighting cancer, saving whales/puppies/seals, etc.) but many times it isn't. If you're competent and you make something look easy and it is a something that gets attention in some way - someone will want to take that away from you because you seem to be having fun and getting all the attention.  ...

I think it is fairly safe to say that most of us are bad at one thing, the same thing in fact - especially if we are female, more so if we are female and over the age of 40. We are bad at taking care of ourselves. I have to try to learn to do this ... no, more than try I have to learn to take care of myself and apply that learning every single day. Talk about Mission Impossible. Like many my age, I am becoming the caregiver for my aging parent. A parent with a degenerative brain disease that there is no treatment for, little research being done about and is pretty rare. It is called primary progressive aphasia . This disease is stealing my mother's use of language. Her speech, her ability to write - all of it. It attacks the language center of the brain, sets up house and settles in. It is related in pathology to Alzheimer's so the going though is well let's treat it with the same meds ... not helpful. Pretty useless in fact. And, get this, she wasn't sick enoug...

I miss writing. Maybe you miss reading what I write. Maybe not. I only have 2 actual followers for this blog through the page itself so perhaps NO ONE is out there reading this... of course if I cross-post to Facebook people can read it there without having to "follow" the blog itself. Isn't that cheating?  I was "chatting" with an old friend the other day about blogging and becoming a professional blogger. Face it, 2 - count 'em 2! - followers is hardly a roaring endorsement of the potential here. But we also talked about having a theme. I sort of do... or thought I did. Space. Cats. Pawprints From Space. Yet mostly this is a place to rant about life, the universe and everything. Oh wait "the universe" that's SPACE!! But I digress (which was once a wonderful column in the Comic Buyer's Guide by the marvelous Peter David. I wonder if it still is?), a theme, a focus, a purpose.... or just say what the hell and be me. You kno...