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When persistence is no longer productive, pivot to acceptance.

Acceptance can foster resilience. Compassion can help us relieve suffering.

Tenacity of spirit doesn't mean attaining an impossible goal, but living fiercely through psychological pain.

When we’re dogged, we’re determined. We don’t give up. But sometimes being dogged is as productive as barking up the wrong tree.

Take, for example, my cat, Sam.

In 2010, a Good Samaritan witnessed someone toss a tiny ball of orange fur from a car on the highway. He stopped and rescued this kitten, bringing him to the local Animal Rescue League. With severe head trauma and a degloved lower lip, the team wasn't sure Sam, estimated to be only six or seven weeks old, would survive.

I was volunteering at the shelter the day after Sam was brought in. I saw him in his cage, his eyes wide with fear. I opened the cage door and placed my hand at the edge as an offering. He leaned his nose forward, sniffed, then crawled into my palm and began purring like a car motor.

Despite what had happened to him at the hands of a human, Sam’s desire to love was dogged.

When he was medically cleared, I adopted........

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