Craft + Charity = Good (Really Good)

Is it presumptuous and a tad arrogant to feel that you are meant for something? Meant for something that will make the world a better place? I feel that I am meant to care for animals, to advocate for their care and to deliver them to safety. Is that crazy?

This morning I entertained about 40 cars at the intersection of Hampton and Davis. There was a stray dog trotting in and out of traffic and it took me about 1.4 seconds to decide to pull over and do something about it. We danced about the bustling intersection, pissing off DART buses and slowing down traffic. Finally, I shooed him towards some houses and off he went. I got back in my car and pulled back out into traffic. At a red light I watched him go off down Hampton and sent all sorts of good vibes his way. As the light turned green, I saw a blue car pull up to help him. I smiled and drove off.

I can only hope my actions did one or all of the following: (1) saved the dog's life, if only for the moment, (2) delivered him to the blue car that stopped to help him, (3) modelled behavior for the 40 or so cars that watched my attempts at caring for a helpless animal. I'll never know for sure.

All of this (and some recent spiritual epiphanies) have led me to decide the following: for every sale I make, I will donate 10% to animal welfare groups in my community. I'll do this at the end of each month by tallying my sales and figuring 10% - a sort of charity tithe. I'll alternate between Operation Kindness, SPCA of Dallas, Dog & Kitty City, and other smaller orgs in the Dallas area.

If I have a particularly good trunk show or fruitful month of online sales, I will up my annual donation to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, earrmarked for their rescue missions.

It's such a simple plan. Why don't you do the same?