Mooch woke from his nap, yawned, and settled back on his warm bed with his little pink sock. Suddenly, he realized, “I have lost my purr!” For some unknown reason, Mooch, a pet cat, could no longer produce his affectionate, fluttering, pleasing sound.
Alarmed, Mooch ran to his best friend for help. “Earl, I have lost my purr!!”
Earl, the black-and-white dog who had known Mooch for years, exclaimed, “Where did it go?”
Afraid and sad, Mooch replied, “I don’t know, but we must find it!” Mooch and Earl tried to locate the purr for days but to no avail.
One day, around lunchtime, as snowflakes began falling from the gray sky, Mooch decided to try again to hunt for his purr. He saw his little friend, Stinky Kitty, approaching him.
Stinky was shivering, lost, and hungry. Mooch quickly returned to his house and grabbed his lunch bowl, which was full of food. When he reached Stinky, he said as he lowered the plate, “Here, Stinky, have ALL my food, and then I’ll carry you home. I can find my purr another day.”
As the little tiger kitten began to softly purr while nibbling the food, suddenly, Mooch let out the loudest purr ever heard in the neighborhood!
Later, Earl came for a visit and found Mooch in his bed with his pink sock, purring.
“So, you found your purr, Mooch!” Earl declared with joy.
Mooch replied, “Nope, it found me.”
When we give to others out of the goodness of our hearts, we heal our souls and regain our purrs. This generosity fuels our lives, allowing us to perform at our best. The most wonderful people I have encountered embody this spirit of giving and love, bringing joy to others, and finding happiness and peace within themselves.
Since the holidays, we have witnessed multiple heartbreaking tragedies. Some people immediately assign blame for suffering, but often, it is just the way things happen—whether it’s misfortune, a mistake, or simply the way the wind blew. No matter the cause, blame never eases pain, but compassion does.
After wildfires devastated communities and hurricanes flooded towns, people of all ages, religions, ethnicities, and income levels came together. Their focus was not on who to blame but on how to help. Questions like “How do we get diapers, water, clothes, and food?” and “How do we rebuild our lives?” became paramount.
Most of us have never faced such loss, but we must understand and unite to provide the necessary aid.
I am fortunate to come from a family of women who considered it essential to write thank-you notes. If you wronged someone, you apologized. If someone was sick, you cooked a meal, and if you saw someone in need, you gave—whether from your wallet or your talents.
My great-grandmother barely scraped by; her home was heated by an old wood-burning stove. Yet, she hand-stitched countless quilts to keep others warm and gave them away. Her daughter would give her last dime to a stranger without hesitation, often saying, “Honey, you lose nothing by giving something away!” Throughout their lives, they never lost their purr, peace, or passion for living.
Frank Sinatra once said, “If you possess something but can’t give it away, then you don’t possess it; it possesses you.”
If we hold onto regret, shame, and resentment for too long, we cannot regain our purr because we have failed to give it to God. We cannot recover our joy with crabbiness and complaint.
These days, many people discuss how to improve our country. Everyone, from our leaders to the average person on the street, has an opinion on how to achieve this goal. Legislatures pass various bills, believing they will build a better nation. Courts consider laws aimed at improving justice, and meetings are held nationwide, from rural communities to large cities, on ways to enhance our lives.
However, the truth is that the only way we can improve our society is to become better people who believe kindness is the key to productivity, who understand that compassion is the healing element of tragedy, and who recognize that in giving, we never lose anything.
Kindness and understanding are not just moral virtues but also the building blocks of a more harmonious and equitable society.
Mooch and Earl live in a cartoon created by Patrick McDonnell called “Mutts.” There is a bit of Mooch and Earl in all of us. Yet, sometimes, we just need to be reminded that to sleep with a purr, we must rise each day with a giving heart. It is through this generosity that joy finds us.
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Lynn Walker Gendusa is a Tennessee-raised, Georgia-residing author and columnist. Her latest book “Southern Comfort: Stories of Family, Friendship, Fiery Trials, and Faith” is available on Amazon. She can be reached at www.lynngendusa.com. For more of her inspirational stories, click here.
