Been kind of sad lately. Maybe even a bit depressed. I can’t see how anyone can not feel a bit down after reading or watching the latest news. What story am I talking about? On what day? It doesn’t matter, the stories don’t really seem to change, just the places and the names change.
I read about the torture of an eight week old puppy. His paws tied together and placed in a bag, on a door handle of a charity shop. I read an article about a cat who was choked to death with a rope. Pets aren’t the only ones being abused.
Almost daily shootings in America. Everyone seems to say that it is the worst one in the history of these events. I read an article about a 22 year old golfer, doing what she loved. Playing golf, early in the morning. She is assaulted and murdered by a cowardly homeless man who fantasied about raping and killing a woman.
The inhumanity isn’t just confined to America. In 2017, Manchester, England had a terrorist attack. Many young people, children , as well as parents and other adults were killed. One homeless man came out of it like a hero. Supposedly helping the victims. People felt so good about his courage that they donated money to get him off the streets. Over £30,000 was raised. Then the truth came out. He wasn’t helping the victims, he was stealing from the injured and the dying.
On my train ride home I read an article where a dad killed his six year old daughter because she wanted to go home to her mummy’s house because she wasn’t feeling well. Out of jealously, he killed his own daughter.
It is hard, almost impossible to keep up with world events without hearing about the evil that seems to surround us. Many stories leave me with tears. I see photos of big game hunters, holding their guns with big smiles sitting next to an elephant they killed. Is that really hunting?
The animal stories affect me a lot. I read them and then think of our cat. A rescue cat, who when he first moved in with us, hated the world. He’d hiss at us and let it be known that he didn’t trust us and certainly didn’t want us.
We knew his story before we agreed to take him home. He was abandoned and lived on the streets. During the winter of 2017, he found homes that had cat flaps and would enter those homes. Not for food but rather just for warmth and shelter. When home owners tried to get him outside, he couldn’t understand why. They already had a cat why couldn’t he stay? He ended up attacking the cats and their owners, just trying to stay warm. Some caring people would put food outside for him but he never touched it, instead he would just venture into a home.
Eventually, he was captured and handed over to The Cat Protection Society and put in a cattery waiting for someone to adopt him. Many people avoided him because of his hiss and his general angry appearance. We wanted to give him a try and within three months we ended up with a trusting, loving and caring house cat.
When I read about pets being killed I think about our baby and can’t help but cry… wondering how close to death he was.
I’ve come to the point that maybe reading the newspaper or watching the evening news isn’t for me. There just seems to be to much hate and anger in the world, with very few answers on how to stop it.
Dave Harm is a recovering alcoholic who has been sober for over 20 years. He is an NLP Master Practitioner, Hypnotist, and Life Coach. He is the author of three books and the creator of two musical CD's.
He shares his experience and journey on his website www.daveharm.com