So many people are looking for puppies these days and I get emails almost daily asking about breeding plans (waiting for a girl to go in season — that is the current plan). I have gotten to where I ignore people who ask about price in the first email and my justification is that I have a disclaimer about this on my Puppy Page — and there is a pandemic.
I really cannot spare even one Little Soldier to generate an email to someone who cannot be bothered to read over the info on my website about how to approach finding a puppy from a reputable breeder.
And yes, I could cut and paste an email (and sometimes I do) but the truth is being annoyed by those types of emails is a burden, and I am just over extra annoyance right now.
(Note and an aside: Are you tempted to tell me how to solve this? Please don’t. Trust that people: 1) can usually figure things out for themselves; and, 2) will ask for advice if they want it.)
The pandemic has reduced bandwidth for everyone. Dialing back is especially important right now and that means it is okay to be intentional about how we spend our time and energy.
Harper, Pozy, and Daisy
In order for any of us to be our best and most effective selves, we must recognize our limits and target our Little Soldiers to those things that matter most. There is, after all, no shame in being an imperfect human in a pandemic. In fact, to be that means we are one of the lucky ones — in the USA alone, 237,000+ imperfect human beings and counting were not so lucky.
And so those of us still standing have permission to pick and choose what we can do right now, and not feel guilty because we cannot do and be all things to all people.
Pandemic Life means we need to dial back and make safe choices because — if we are smart and lucky — there will be…
In the meantime, just keep marching and doing what you can. It might not be pretty but that is okay. You are, after all, still taking showers and showing up in the middle of a once-in-century pandemic with no cure and no vaccine and so many dead people.
Wouldn’t it be strange if it wasn’t hard?
And so let’s sing it together…