It's all relative.

There's not much a few dollars will buy these days. But every now and then I have an epiphany in the grocery store and make a mental note to myself to be grateful.

Coffee filtres!! You can get hundreds for about two bucks. And what about toilet paper? I mean really.... it's a percentage of cents per session. Bobby pins!! What incredibly useful things they are! And is someone in the inventor's family still getting royalties? I hope so. Who cares if bobby pins seem to disapppear on you over the weeks and months. There's an unending market for the things and I do not object to spending money on them. Sometimes I even go for deluxe bobby pins and spend three dollars on them. It is soooooo nice to feel conspicuously consumptive while getting change on a five dollar bill.

Watermelon; I mean the real thing with seeds and all, watermelon which has not been genetically manipulated. How I long for this "taken for granted" melon when it is out of season here and I'm sitting inside while it's 40 below out there. It is at such times that I feel I should appreciate watermelon alot more.

Pomegranates: get cheaper as the season goes by. However even when they are NOT inexpensive, compared to other fruits, they are still worth every juicy morsel. You cannot eat pomegranates quickly. So think of the money per minute that this represents. You can either buy half of a fancy coffee at a specialty coffee shop, or enjoy a pomegranate. (Once more craved when not available.)

Even your cat benefits... Think of the price of catnip and compare it to the endless hours of sheer joy produced per plant.

Stationery is cheap per letter... compared to the price of friggin' stamps, anyway.

So it's all relative people. Next time you think everything is soooooo expensive, take stock and keep your mind open while you're shopping.

They're probably gone.

Whenever I see an old photo of an animal, whether it's a horse in a Western movie or a poster with a kitten fast asleep in a hammock, I can't help but wonder where they are now. Sure, I think the same of people, but not as thoughtfully.

I'll look at old photos of miners and cowboys and realize that they all had very real lives and those are probably over. They had human experiences and perhaps at the time their photos were taken, they probably weren't giving much thought to their "ends" or maybe some did, more often than not, and they worried about it.

Animals don't worry. I look at their old photographs, realize they are gone and miss them automatically even though I may not have known them. I often wonder why that is. And do other people see the same things and think the same thoughts as I do?

To those who don't believe that Animals are of Spirit, I say you're wrong. They're much closer to God than we are while we're stuck here. Because they love unconditionally and automatically. They have no ego and they know many things we are blind to.

Here's to all animals.