it was an interesting day.

Leila was using saints as the venue for a round table discussion relating to the topic she has chosen for her masters degree thesis.

so first of all let me thank all of the saints volunteers who took care of the daily business so I could participate..(oh and by the way if you are wondering why there are suddenly capital letters in my posts..don't ask me... the computer is doing it all on its own..apparently I have a smart computer.) and I also want to apologise for not saying good bye and thank you to folks so I am saying it now.

anyway..back to why today was interesting. I swear to god I live here in this rescue with my head in the sand. it is not because I am afraid, it is because I am so busy that my head rarely gets the opportunity to get out of my very own hole. so it was really nice to be surrounded by different people, with different homeless animal experiences and perspectives and listen to and discuss the things we have in common and the things that we don't.

this was so far removed from the rescue boards where I have to be right, therefore you have to be wrong. face to face as equals brings a whole different, non competitive perspective of sharing thoughts, beliefs and ideas without fault or worry of harm.

I really enjoyed it. each of us do animal welfare, rescue, control from a different starting and ending place. rescuing primarily senior dogs, near the end of their lives is far different than taking in younger, healthier dogs in the prime of their lives and the responsibilities, the focus, the beliefs, the realities are going to be different...they have to.
but what I found most interesting was the level of thought, the level of commitment, the seriousness of the responsibility, all of us felt to do whatever it is we do, the best that we could.

this was not a fly by night, mixed, on again, off again, here today, gone tomorrow, group.. these were serious people invested in what they do. I particularly liked the open honesty of a relative newby who just wanted to be here to listen and learn.

sometimes I wish I had more time and opportunity to engage in round table discussions. rescue is not an area where we can spend much time with our peers. we all seem to get into our own zones and pretty much stay there. we may engage with the folks around us but lets face it, we all pretty much think the same or we wouldn't be together in the first place. it is nice to fan out past our walls and gates and pick the brains, absorb the thoughts, hear and feel other experiences from other places and people than here.

quite honestly I wasn't really looking all that much forward to it..i was anticipating an inconvenient interruption to my weekend routine. and I have to say I was wrong in this...today was a truly welcome break from my head being buried in saints sand. so thank you to Leila and everyone who took the time to come. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I would like to be able to do it again some day.