kindness to all creatures

October 4, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

who would have guessed
i’d become such a dog person:
entering a house and immediately being picked
by the big lab-pit mix
as the one who’d pay the most attention to him
[and him being exactly right]
as i’d kneel down for his face licks
and let him roll around in my lap
as i pet his belly
and squish his puppy face
and pull him around the kitchen
at the end of a tug toy rope
and always answer the call
of more pets
more belly rubs
more playtime
more attention
throughout the evening —
the adults standing and talking
the kids sitting and being entertained
and me and the puppy
rolling around on the floor
content as can be

i should have known from that first rain storm
and how much my heart was still in love with Louka
even as she smelled like wet wet dog
that i was an absolute goner
for the whole canine race

[i adore all animals, but dogs are something special]

~~~

not to be that person
but i can’t let a poem go
about loving animals
without bringing up my first love:
cats

cats of all kinds and colors
cats of all breeds and demeanors
i love the cats who hiss and snarl
and i love the cats who cuddle and curl
and i love the standoffish cats
who give you the time of day for one (1) pet
and then you may never see them again
and i love the needy cats
and the house cats
and the outside cats
and the stray cats
and the cats who act like dogs
and the cats who scream for food at 5 am
and the cats who play nonstop
and the cats who find the best sunspots and just sleep —
they are all great
and i love them all
with all of my heart

[along with all dogs, and all animals, as established in my previous poem]

~~~

it’s very silly to have competing poems
for dogs
vs
for cats
because i’ve spent my whole life loving the ‘underdog’
[which, ironically, is usually cats]
but i can
love them both equally
along with all animals
because i am that person
i am that Wild Magic character
who needs at least two animals around her
in order to sleep a good sleep at night

i wish i could call wild creatures to my bed
and cuddle with deer and raccoons and buffalo and echidnas all
but i am just as happy
having one cat and one puppy
in my bed with me
half on top of me
i really don’t sleep great
unless there is some kind of creature, be it feline, canine
or kip
and definitely the best sleep is with all three

i am an animal person
an animal lover
a lover of all creatures
even creepy crawly ones
even the spiders i’m so terrified of
i still see their reason for being
i wish i could deal with them being in the house
[and some of them, i can
some of them i can]

honestly
and truly
the only species of animals i’m not
1,000% on board with

are humans…

[and even then, half my life is spent
trying to make sure the humans i know and love
are feeling seen and heard and listened to and loved,
so damn, i really do love all this planet’s creatures…

and other planets’…?
i just haven’t met yet!]

September 21, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

as much as i joke
that i hate people

i really do
do a lot of things
to help out
people

and care
so hard
about people

and my life’s purpose seems to be
helping people
healing people
slowly
one by one
conversation by conversation
just making people feel
listened-to
and heard

i hate when other people don’t do what i do
don’t really truly listen

but then, if they all did
i’d have no purpose in this world
would i?

~~~

[but there are too many people
in this world
to heal

and too much to heal
in one conversation

why can’t people just
be
kind?]

~~~

the older i get
the less i look for
fame
and my name
in lights
and other goals i had myself convinced
i needed to make my time
here on this planet
count

those were always a means to an end

the end being healing

the end being feeling listened to

and i can do that better one on one
than with a large fan-base
anyway

so kindness is what i look for
and what i hope to leave
on this planet

i really do intend to leave it
better than i found it

and if that means taking each person i meet
and making them feel
important to me

then that’s good because
they are.

September 18, 2026

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i am so in love
with non-human persons
the animal companions we keep with us
the wild ones where i may never meet them
but i can watch on videos and capture
the tiniest portion of their soul to intermingle with my soul
for a tiny portion of time
and then let them go

the languages they speak without language
the emotions they express through their bodies and eyes
the understanding i think we share
but the knowledge that it may be my own inferences
my own imaginings
my own human narrative
and not reality
that i’m picking up on

it is humbling

it is momentous

it is a way to live in the moment
and stop thinking of oneself
and instead think about
connection

i am so in love with
the creatures on this planet
and i hope to someday connect with
and see the personness inside
and hear the breathing of
the trees and flowers and soil underground
in the same way i can with those with eyes

[i think all i have to do
is listen]

April 5, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i live my life based on the philosophy
i read in a tumblr post
once

the long and short of the text was that
after your were finished with a life
you got to what you thought were the pearly gates
of heaven
or hell
or limbo
or wherever
and you started to see,
though there was no one else there,
that you’d been here before
thousands upon millions upon billions of times
and it was revealed that you
are and were and would be
everyone

and every time you had been mean
you had simply been being mean
to a former [or future] iteration of yourself

and every time you had been kind
or received kindness
that was you
and you and you
all along

and it’s not that i can only thing about
the consequences of cruelty
or the benefits of kindness
if it is in relation to my own being

no

what got me about that philosophy
was the idea that
everyone around me
was so much closer than originally thought —

i spend so much time thinking i’m
a complete alien to the rest of the human race, that i
will never understand what someone is going through
and they certainly will never even try to see
what’s going on in my mind,
and everything
everyone
seems so damn foreign
and far, far away
and even when i think about
the interdependent web of all existence
there’s still a distance
i place between myself and my fellow [hu]man

but that one silly little tumblr post

it made my neighbor
and my ancestor
and the writer of the book i’m reading
and the anchor of the news show i’m fearing
and the baby in front of me
and the octogenarian on the other side of the world
and literally everyone in between
it made them all seem so much closer to me
in a sense of peace i had never before experienced

so i know that it’s probably not true

but what if it is?

and i tend to live my life based on “what ifs”
[as long as they don’t hurt anyone else]

and this particular “what if” has the tendency
to encourage
the opposite

so maybe think about it

or search out that og post
[it’s actually a pre-written short story called the egg by andy weir,
i just came across it on tumblr one day
as you do]

because i think it’s worth
the philosophizing
and the comfort
and the hope
it brings

September 29, 2025

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when one smacks a mosquito
good and full against
an arm or a leg or a wall or a table
there often remains
a dusty shadow of the mosquito
as if to say
“here is the evidence that you’ve taken a life,
now deal with it.”