Category Archives: Inspirational

The Joys of Living Together

I grew up as an only child. This means that I can spend oodles of time by myself. In fact, I crave it. I once dated a guy who came from a large family and constantly needed to be around a lot of people. You can imagine how long that relationship lasted.

For the past month or so, I’ve been in a transition state. Most people are not comfortable with an extended transition state. It feels squishy. You don’t know when things will be resolved. It’s constantly fluid but solid. I’m ok with my transition state. Consulting as a profession could be defined as doing ambiguous things for an unknown client for an indeterminate amount of time. Here is the secret to accepting transition – just accept it. It’s hard to let go of the past but in that transition state is where your future lies.

By staying flexible and knowing that anything can change, when it does you aren’t surprised. Instead you just move in step with whatever path you’ve been guided.

Cats are ambiguous creatures as well. Some easily adjust to transition but others begin to act out. As our cats have always been two household cats, they’ve learned to adjust to whatever happens. But here are some tips for cats, and their owners, to adjust to transition:

1) No matter where you are, you can mark out your space, however small
2) Find something, someone or someplace you can go to center yourself
3) Do not be afraid to discuss how you are feeling in your transition
4) limit your transitions – you aren’t going to quit smoking, give up Chick-Fil-a and train for the marathon all at once. Pace yourself
5) Open yourself to whatever happens is what is supposed to happen; control is an illusion

What other tips do you have for transitioning in your life?

Traveling as a Traveler

People everywhere take vacations. They travel down the street, across town, across state, across country, across oceans and soon across galaxies. Yet, many of these people will remain tourists and never become a traveler.

There is nothing wrong with being a tourist. You get to go cool places, see beautiful monuments and have great experiences.

But what is the difference between the two?

A traveler lets the travel experience change them. They seek out the travel in order to stretch themselves, try new things even while being a tourist. They go to the top of the Eiffel tower not to just see it, but to understand why the French wanted it torn down and why it was supposed to be temporary. They seek not to just pose in pictures but to let the picture become their life for a brief period.

Cats are travelers. This is evidenced by the difference in behaviors between the houses of CCL and Azeena. JC for example demands backyard access daily at Azeena’s house. At CCL, he demands he evening ration of Fancy Feast with Cheddar. Roxie used to have entirely different behaviors as well. At CCL she would frequently wake CCL up in the middle of the night. Azeena enjoyed peaceful nights but crazy mornings.

In every case the cats let themselves absorb the personality of the house owner.

We have a fixed core, but we can let those experiences while traveling, even just around the block, change us. Let us absorb them. Really try to see the world from their point of view. Why do they think differently? And you will too…

Road Trip

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CCL and I have hit the road “over the river” and through Pennsylvania for family Thanksgiving dinner. Tradition, family and love. Just passed a herd of cows. Years ago my parents took my sister and me on road trips. My mom would have us count the cows on our sides of the car. Whoever got the biggest tally would win some candy. If you passed a graveyard it meant your tally was wiped out and you had to start over.

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Discovery

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Im impressed by Detroit airport. There are a lot of shops and people traceling to far away lands. CCL has been away for a time in Europe. I long to travel someplace outside the U. S. soon. I’ve done a lot of domestic travel but other parts of the world (the planet) intetest me. Still I am reminded that life’s journey is fascinating – learning one’s soul and learning to be whole the ultimate trip.

Go with the flow

Cats are amazing creatures. They adapt to the craziest of circumstances with grace. Humans not so much. We fear change and most of us don’t do well in new situations. However maybe if we believed we would always land on our feet we would handle any change with grace as well.  I’m currently on my own completely following my instinct. This means changes from day to day but I’m doing what feels right to me and no one else.