Henry, the Checkpoint Cat's Life Lesson

The Mana we leave in others remains forever. Leave Only Positive Mana Here!

This is Henry - before and after. Checkpoint cat. On contact line at Stanitsia Luhanska, March 2017.

Had watched him survive all winter there, as 1000s queued each day to leave Muscovy-occupied Luhansk. Took a friendly Ukrainian commander three weeks to capture Henry for me.

At the time, one colleague in particular did everything in his power to help me exfiltrate Henry successfully from a war zone. It was a very complex operation. I will always be grateful to them for their humanity.

By contrast those colleagues who didn't value life made things extremely difficult as a result of this operation. Whenever I encounter or think of these colleagues, the overall memory is dominated by their inhumane behaviour at this time.

Ukrainian armed forces today rightly use such exfiltrations of sentient beings like kittens (https://lnkd.in/eFZ_K8FV) to telegraph how different they are from Ruschist occupiers who even with their many mobile crematoria still leave tens of thousands of souls to rot on the battlefields of eastern and southern Ukraine.

The lesson for all of us in work is: The Mana we leave in others long after everyday tasks are completed remains forever. Therefore, let's ensure we leave positive Mana only. Quotidian situations should never let us forget that the Mana (power/energy) that illuminates us is all that matters. It's all we'll remember of others (and ourselves be remembered for) years after some forgettable deadline is missed or mistake made.

The Mana that remains of the driver in Dnipro who killed Henry also remains. In me. And where Henry is buried. In Dnipro's pet cemetery. @DecodingTrolls