This Memorial Day Weekend, I’m spending time with my mom ” Miss Georgia” and the family. Couldn’t help but notice the giant monster plant has made a comeback. The plant in mom’ s living room fell off the table mysteriously in the middle of the night two years ago and was thought was gone forever (Planticide – July 18, 2010). After the fall what was left of the plant was placed in a medium sized jar of water on the family room table, later repotted and placed back in the living room. Now the plant is enormous, somewhat less menacing than before, (no scales so far) and quite glorious . That’s the thing about reinvention – sometimes it’s incremental and it often yields glorious results.
Category Archives: Spirituality
He’s BAACK – The Return of the Giant Plant
Remembering Shaby
Pets add so much to our lives. My friend Dwayne, recently lost his beloved dog “Shaby.” I was moved by his Facebook remembrance to his furry friend and got his permission to post it to this blog. Here’s Dwayne’s moving tribute to “Shaby.”
“Many of you have asked about ” Shaby” over the past few years. My family, friends and colleagues have all known him for the past 18 years. He was always present making someone laugh or smile. Last night, the little champ slept away to Heaven. Six rewards, pet amber alerts, 20 or more lost and found ads, a private detective and lawyers to get him back from his various adventures into the neighborhoods in Atlanta, NYC, NJ and Houston, he always found his way back to the Ashley Family. Like most of us, Shaby was curious about the world and wanted to see it–so he explored. Mom, thanks for taking great care of him for the past 4 years, and years before when I came for visits and he ended staying for months to years. And to all my friends who took care him when I had to travel over the years ( Cisco, Kurt, Leon, Gerald, Phillip, Martha and Andy). We will miss you little fella and “don’t embarrass me by begging for food when people are eating in Heaven”
Shaby
Ain’t Nobody Eating Off the Floor
CCL has a lovely house but clearly she needs a cat feeder. When she is away on business she leaves out plates. KoKo in recent rebellion jumped and dived on a plate knocking it over spilling the contents on the floor. No she never ate the food she spilled.
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?
Adjusting to New Circumstances
So as we’ve seen we have a new kitten Koko. There was definitely some discussion over her name. Koko was her name at the shelter and as we can well see our cats have names that have meaning. For example, Jean-Claude’s middle name is Calinvif which is loosely translated French for “snuggles hard” and Roxie’s middle name was Toshi which is loosely translated Japanese for Warrior.
I haven’t yet determined what would be appropos for Ms. Koko. Azeena frequently calls her Koko “Bean” which is cute, but I haven’t yet figured out what is the definition of her spirit. She is extremely loving towards humans but still gives JC a hard time. I think she hasn’t figured out that she can use his 16 pounds of cuddling to keep her warm at night.
I think it took Koko awhile to actually adjust to being home and recognizing that this is her permanent home. I think she was adopted before, so it will take awhile before she really trusts that she is a permanent member of the family. I am using scent and no stress spray to get her to be comfortable with JC as more than just a cat she shares space with. Luckily, we aren’t as bad as some people, like the couple who was recently on “My Cat From Hell” in that they can share some space and eat together and not always have it be fighting.
Most humans fear change. We delay actions and thoughts because of the fear we have in our minds. However, the older I get the more I realize that NOTHING has ever come out the way I feared it. When I’ve broken through the curtain of fear, everything has turned out to be wonderful. I have been able to accomplish things in my life that I never thought I would because I broke through fear. I have also let fear dictate some things in my life and hold me back. If we are honest with ourselves we will do those things we need to do to get over our fear and move beyond it.
We humans have resources untold available to us. We have groups, phones and can connect with people in a number of ways. We also need to to interact and connect within ourselves. Pray, a form of meditation, is a wonderful way to do this.
Cats & All That ™ 