The Cats!

When in doubt, design an interlude!

While not officially promoted within this blog, if anyone is following from other platforms, they may have seen that I am pursuing a personal ambition of writing 52 book-to-mental health reflections in 52 weeks. As of last week, we are over the halfway mark! Whew, I was a completely different person in a completely different era of life back when I started this. 

It is fascinating to measure life through goals. It is one of the reasons I have kept my book tracking apps up to date with an annual reset– I can remember what was happening in my life while reading certain books, and then I pause and see, “that was only 4 months ago??”

Life can feel like a ton of “hurry up and wait,” vignettes, and even though I never know how to answer people when they ask, “what have you been up to,” tracking life through weekly blog posts, book tracking, journaling, or any other system has me recognize that I have been up to a lot.

Someone I was talking to recently paused our conversation to write something down in their journal. When they resurfaced, they explained, “I get depressed thinking about how little I have done in my day-to-day life. So I’ve started to write down short sentences of how much I am actually doing. I log chores, games, conversations, people, crafts, hobbies, thoughts. It helps me see I’m not wasting my time as much as it can sometimes feel.”

As a therapist, I advocate for my clients to find opportunities to celebrate wins as they unfold, no matter the size of the accomplishment. Someone did the difficult thing even when they didn’t want to? Find a way to celebrate that’s measurable to the task! It’s another way to remember all that we accomplish, and to feel motivated to continue with tasks when the weight of a never-ending to-do list continues to loom over us.

With that in mind, this week’s post is a little different. It’s a personal celebration of getting over the hump of my first 26 consecutive posts being completed, and an offered celebration to those of you who have taken time to read long-form posts for possibly 6 months now. I will be dedicating this time to introduce you to the titular Cats of Chapters, Cats, and Chaises: 

Margo: 13 years old, agent of mind control and world domination.

Luna: 5 years old, minion of Margo, Australian Shepherd/Border Collie in the skin of a cat.

Ginny: 4 years old, essentially just Ord from DragonTales, spooks when I breathe, but described by her vet as, “…… I don’t think she’s overweight…. I think she actually, really is just that big…” and, “does she snuggle? I love a cat this huge who can snuggle.”

While life can be a lot, and something is seemingly always looming, the true minions carrying the load are always near. As I write, Luna’s sleeping belly-up and in arm’s reach. Margo is sprawled on the floor behind me, and Ginny is hidden under the bed, forgetting that she’s got to tuck her backside in if she doesn’t want to be seen. These kids work hard to keep their mom stable. When life gets overwhelming, as a non-smoker, I have said more than once, “I need to sniff a cat,” and immediately bury my face into their fur. So they might not pay rent, but they absolutely pay their dues and influence this blog more than you can imagine. 

Don’t worry, they’re getting canned wet food every night.