My lit­tle dog,  Mr. Pip, is an adorable Jack Rus­sell mix.He looks like a tator-tot with legs. We were at the vet recently.Pip’s ter­ri­fied of the vet. But he was doing his best to look brave, when an old­er, armed sher­iff arrived. The man strode up to the vet tech, whis­pered something,and she replied, “Of course. Bring him to Room 5.” When the sher­iff turned to leave, Pip jumped up and began lick­ing his hand. The sher­iff leaned down to look at him, and then knelt on the floor. Pip hopped into his lap, and buried his sweet lit­tle face in the man’s chest. For a few min­utes, they shared what I can only call a sacred embrace. When the vet tech reap­peared and opened the door to Room 5, the sher­iff gave Pip a squeeze and mur­mured, “I have to go now lit­tle bud­dy.” Pip hopped off his lap. Then he sat at my feet, at atten­tion. And when I say Pip sat at atten­tion, I mean he sat like a tiny sol­dier:  shoul­ders back, ears erect. He watched intent­ly as the sher­iff lift­ed an enor­mous old Ger­man Shep­herd out of the back of an SUV marked K9 and car­ried him into Room

My friend Gin­ny makes the most amaz­ing home­made pimen­to cheese spread. To receive some is to find love on a crack­er and know you’re cared for.

Nature is always mod­el­ing things for us. I had anoth­er chance to con­tem­plate that this past week when four inch­es of snow fell and turned the Great Smokey Moun­tains into a fairy­land. Always claim the unique­ness that makes you who you are! The world needs all of us to show up and come together.

Some­times our vision, opin­ions, and judg­ment, becomes cloud­ed. It’s amaz­ing what a fresh look at life can to help us see clear­ly again! As a new year begins, let’s try look­ing at one anoth­er with a fresh set of eyes, and look for what we have in com­mon instead of what divides us!