Late yesterday afternoon I received this message from Kelly who reads my blog, “I can’t tell you how happy I am that you have found Gidget and are back to blogging. I think special needs animals do wonders for the human psyche!”
This brought tears to my eyes because when Joie died I shut down inside. I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to write again. I felt I had nothing more to say. Nothing really made sense to me.
Taking a sabbatical was a tough thing for me to do. I was afraid all the work I had done blogging, writing my books, finding my loyal readers like all of you, and educating others about disc disease and special needs animals would simply vanish. I wondered, could I really walk away for two months?
I questioned if all I had worked so hard to build would not be here when I returned. But I knew I had to step away for awhile. I pride myself in being someone who enjoys sharing, encouraging and inspiring. We have enough bad news in the world if we want to hear it. I want to be the happy place people can come to.
I debated and finally decided to reach out to a mentor of mine, Dan Blank. He helps authors and writers. I’ve taken many classes from him and admire him greatly. I had a feeling he could help me with my decision. His words of wisdom were just what I needed to trust that this was the right thing for me to do at this time in my life.
I’ll continue to write more about what I learned on my sabbatical in future posts. Though right now I can say I felt restless and lost many times throughout those sixty days. But now that I am back, I’m so happy to be here again. I also know that was the right thing for me to do.
Of course, having Gidget in my life now has certainly added to my heart feeling so fulfilled again! But to finally feel like me again, back to writing on my blog and giving thought to new projects, seeing that message from Kelly brought me to tears. To me, it is a message from the Universe, sent through Kelly to affirm for me that I am on the right path.
PS: Kelly, you are 100% right… special needs animals are so good for the human psyche! And might I add, all animals are special in one way or another and bring us so much joy.