I think everyone likes to be appreciated, whether it’s a job one must do or one of your choosing.  My father said we may not always love the job we have, but we can always do it well.  Some jobs are thankless, some jobs are physically demanding, and some jobs do not get the recognition they deserve.  My little one is good about telling everyone thank you, from the checker at the grocery store to the police directing traffic, and that makes me very happy.  Just standing on your feet all day can be grueling and I think a soft smile or kind word goes a long way.  I love my job but I do not go in expecting a tip.  I am paid to do that job and I try to do it to the best of my ability.  I realize that my services add up and I am truly grateful to have the work.  I love spending my days taking care of dogs, cats, birds and any other creature that does not require me feeding another live critter to it.  I keep most of the notes clients have left me; they mean a lot.  It is a great feeling knowing they are confident entrusting me with their furry, finned, and/or feathered family.  Sometimes they’ll leave a gift for my little one, who has become an excellent helper and caregiver in her own right.  Their thoughtfulness and kindness has never gone forgotten.  I have been treated horribly by some but then who hasn’t?  It is not good to dwell on the negative.  So I was thrilled to receive this wonderful surprise from a family after they’d come back from their summer home for the winter.  They have a wine room and this July I just sat in there for about twenty minutes inhaling the soft scent of cigars and letting my body cool down from walking dogs in 100 plus degree heat.  They not only left me a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon (my favorite) to enjoy, they wrote a kind note thanking me for all my work and added one hundred dollars to my check!  To know by the note I was appreciated was truly gratifying, to receive the wine was lovely, and to have an extra hundred bucks was an elated woo hoo!  In 1779 Benjamin Franklin, the first United States Ambassador to France, wrote to this to his friend, André Morellet, the theologian and philosopher:

“We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle.  But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes.  Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!”

I believe he was correct.  It’s hard to argue with Ben Franklin and a Cab Sav.