25 July 2005
‘It is…happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.’ Samuel Johnson
Trust. Not exactly the blind variety, but close enough. That’s what it takes to be a full-time house-sitter, or an any time sittee. Add beloved pets to the mix and the trust issue becomes even more crucial. Folks who’d never think of leaving their human kids with a total stranger for even five minutes, find themselves driving or flying off to who knows where for who knows how long, having left their pretty kitties, fluffy-wuffies or whatevers in the care of someone they met only hours earlier. If that’s not total trust, what is?
I think this is the nicest part of being a house and pet-sitter. Feeling that soul-warming, hardly-ever-found-anymore thing that humans used to count on naturally, and lost somewhere along the way, since ‘competing with’ became more important than ‘relying on’ each other. People trust me with their homes and most of their worldly goods. They seem to know I’ll love and care for their pets as well as they do and that their homes and belongings are in capable, responsible hands. I have to tell you, that’s worth more than anything anyone could pay me, if I charged a fee for sitting. Which I don’t.
I sit for free, as I do everything for free in this latter phase of my life. While I tend houses and dogs, cats, turtles, snakes, et al. here, there, and everywhere, I help people all over the world with their writing, by email. Sitting allows me to do that, so the people I sit for are helping many others sort of second-hand. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, their one act of trust is multiplied many times over, as gifts that go on giving. Neat, huh?
Do you know, that in over six years of doing this, I haven’t come across one single un-nice person? Not one! and I’ve been doing this non-stop, the whole time, since I’m homeless (by choice) and thus have to go from one sit to another, without any gaps. It’s got to be connected with the trust thing, I’m sure. People who trust others are just nice folks, plain and simple. Which came first? Are they nice because they trust me, or do they trust me because they’re nice? Doesn’t really matter.
I was comparatively wealthy in my ‘old’ life, enjoyed a semi-jet-set lifestyle and luxuries most can only dream of. Now, homeless and virtually possession-less, since I have to schlep all my worldly goods with me from sit to sit, I can honestly say this is the best living I’ve ever done. And the most rewarding. I highly recommend it as a part-time ‘career’ or a once in a while ‘change’…or, as it is for me, a way of life. Trust me!
Check out my website at www.saysmom.com and, if you like what you see there, please pass it on and post this link wherever thinking folks gather. Thanks.
‘That some do evil gives none the right to do evil in return.’ maia
‘You must BE the change you wish to see in the world.’ Gandhi
