Our first principle says that we affirm and promote the worth and dignity of every person.

Including caregivers. Requiring someone (usually a family member) to sacrifice his/her life in service to another violates that principle. Abandoning someone, leaving them without resources or companionship, also violates that principle.

The solution is to find the balance, where each person's needs are met--not totally, no one's needs are ever totally met--but adequately, acknowledging the worth and dignity of all people involved.

I'm sure this is obvious to all of you. It's just taken me a while to get my head clear about the situation. Too much emotion, too much personal history, to think clearly at first.

From the mental to the mundane: it's raining, gently, and moving on towards the time for me to do my weekly grocery shopping. I'm out of cat food and there will be a bloody reign of terror (or much meowing, take your pick) if these furballs don't get fed soon.

After that, I have to work on the monthly newsletter. You see, I have my priorities straight. Cats first. Newsletter second.

Actually, my cup of coffee came first first. If we ever run out of coffee, I may throw myself off a bridge (joke: I live on the flat part of the city--no bridges for miles).

I can hear the rain tap-tap-tapping on the awning that shades the west window. In the summer, that awning is all that keeps this room from turning into an oven; in the winter, it becomes the room's tympanum when it rains.

Time to gather up car keys, wallet, glasses, and head out bravely into the storm. The sacrifices we make for cats....