Thankful Thursday: Rainbow Bridge Flags

Just Added 4:10pm PT - Rainbow Bridge Flag Project Video with Mom's Dad playing piano... Scroll to the bottom of the post to watch the video Mom took at the BlogPaws 2012 final reception of some of the Rainbow Bridge honor flags strung across the stage...  =^..^=

It's Thursday and time again for the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop, so post, Facebook or tweet whatever you can find to be grateful for today (or at least before next Thursday, when the blog hop ends) then come back and hook up to our blog hop.

This week, I'm focusing on two of Mom's good friends, Michele Brown and Wanda Kruse, who happen to be the moms of two of my good friends, @MaggieTKat and @PepiSmartDog. 

Wanda (@maggietkat's mom),
Plush Cokie & Mom (@blogpawskristin)

Michele (@pepismartdog's mum)

These two beautiful women took it upon themselves to set a place at the table at BlogPaws for the elephant in the room - the sadness humans carry deep inside, and that can't help but rear its little head in a hotel full of every make and model of pet... I'll bet almost everyone there had moments that caught their breath as they were reminded of a pet they'd loved and lost.

Michele put together a video explaining PepiSmartDog and his responsibility as the Rainbow Bridge Ambassador. It was played at the conference, and while everyone cried - it also made everyone feel better to think of their pets being happy and pain free, playing and waiting to join them...

@PepiSmartDog's Flag - made by Wanda

Wanda created the Rainbow Bridge Honor Flags Project, similar in concept to Tibetan Prayer Flags. She brought loads of material, glue, scissors, beads, and other art supplies, and set them out on tables at the Sheraton for BlogPaws attendees to use to create flags in honor of their own pets who'd passed on.

And they did! Every day there were different people sitting at the tables alone or in groups, silent, or happily sharing stories of the pets the flags were for. They began stringing them along a fire place hearth, and later, on Saturday evening, after the Nose-to-Nose Awards Ceremony, the flags where strung across the stage, as attendees came up to look at each one, take photographs, and talk about the significance of different elements in their own flags.

It was remarkable, healing, and a beautiful tribute. 

The flags were all collected, and the plan is to bring them back next year, to continue the project.

So I'm thankful for my wonderful friends and their wonderful passions - and Mom's great musician dad (Ray Dewey).

How about you?

Cokie