Julius - where are you ?

#Mistake, #Redemption, #HappyEnding

Haven’t we all made mistakes in our lives? Sometimes we may have had a chance at redemption and recognized and seized it (possibly to assuage our guilt conscience) and finally a happy ending. Stop scratching your head and bear with me as I went on this journey myself not too long ago.

It was Oct 31st – Halloween night – and the Trick’r’Treaters were starting to make their presence felt. Since my high school daughter wanted nothing to do with either trickin’ or treatin’ it was left to me and Jackie (our dog) to do the honors. Everything was flowing smoothly until one knock brought forth with it a few kindergartners and a friendly looking kitten. Assuming it was theirs, I handed the candy and was about to close the door when I noticed the kitten was staying put – a yell to the kids and I quickly realized that it wasn’t theirs. The kitten had a collar but no tag and Jackie was getting excited. I had the presence of mind to take a snap of him but then got busy with the candy handout routine again. A few minutes later he jumped over to our neighbors and was gone ! I think I felt a sense of relief (#Wimp #Mistake). Subsequently posted the photo on nextdoor.com and watched for responses in-between the candy routine. As luck would have it a neighbor posted that #Julius was missing for a couple of days and their 6-year-old was devastated – they actually lived across the expressway about a couple of blocks away!!

Another neighbor volunteered to join the cat owners to do a search that night and I jumped in as well (#Redemption #Guilt). We went from street to street for an hour or so shouting Julius – trying to avoid curious stares from Halloweeneers’ – but came up a cropper. A troubling night for me and I was lamenting to my daughter about my inaction in the first place that could have saved him.

Next morning, the text on my phone from the neighbors was music – ‘Julius is found’ - and the article headlining photo was evidence ! Their morning walk was a successful one and he was reunited - #HappyEnding.

Upon reflection, this happened in the compressed time warp of 12 hours so I was able to stitch together the #Mistake -> #Redemption -> #Ending and hopefully learn from it. Most of the time in life and in business, such incidents are temporally spaced out and we neither have the patience nor the solitude to reflect upon our mistakes, chances at redemption that are heavily disguised and endings that could have been rewritten. Maybe a lesson that it is time to start reflecting a little maybe?