What I’ve learned From My Cat

In my younger years, I had no time for cats. They were so unpredictable, independent and often indifferent to me. I used to take offense to such behavior, always comparing them to dogs, who’d easily lavish me with love, follow my training and were overjoyed to see me.

Over the years, and sporadically I must admit, I’ve practiced self awareness, and am continually on the life long journey of self improvement. With this being the case, I’ve come to realize the more I’m able to surrender control of things I cannot control, I’ve come to love and appreciate cats for who they are. Love them on their terms, learning to respect their boundaries and understanding that I don’t have to always understand everything to love them as they are. To my surprise, I now see how my attitude about cats over the years parallels my opinions of people.

Expecting others to meet my standards, continuously being disappointed, and finding myself in disbelief that they wouldn’t want to be the way I think they should be. Im amazed at how unfairly I’ve held onto expectations of how people should be. I now know I have choices, and make my own decisions, as do others. I’m a learning to walk my own path, and to stop telling others how to walk theirs.

I also feel as though my acceptance of others has given me the freedom to be more accepting of myself. I can now give myself permission to be more true to myself, my feelings and my needs. Where once I was always focused on doing for others at my expense, I can now see there is a space where I can do what is best for me. Making a place for myself where I feel safe, being ok with not always making other happy or giving them everything they ask, at my expense. I no longer take on unnecessary responsibilities that do not belong to me, or take offense when my advice is given and not taken, I see now, I’ve been trying to control the actions of a cat.

Is it possible that learning to love a cat has made me more accepting of people just how they are, not how I think they should be? Why yes, I do believe it is. Of course along the way I’ve had others hold a mirror up to my attitude, highlighting the error of my ways. But I do believe, as I grow spiritually, the unrealistic expectations and judgments I’ve made of others have begun to fade away.

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Made it Home

11-1-2022 We arrived home today at 9:30 am. We stayed at a Maverick gas station in Winslow AZ last night after driving about 13 hours from Texas where we stopped in to visit friends. The morning sunrise was amazing.

Sunrise in Winslow AZ

Before making it home we stopped into the small town of Adrian that’s the halfway point between Chicago and Los Angeles.

While visiting friends in Caddo Mills they introduced us to Buc-ee’s! Talk about an experience!

One of the largest gas stations in the world!

Before leaving Oklahoma we stopped into an Antique store, they had been moving into the building for the last couple of weeks, they weren’t open for business yet but he let us do some shopping.

Treasures await

After we left the antique store, Mitch realized he locked the keys in Harvy.

Mitch having to crawl through the window
Yeah, I had to leave him stuck in the window for a minute so I could get a picture, then I pushed him through

Thanks for traveling along with us on our bucket list of the east coast. We had a wonderful time and so glad to have shared it with you all.