Life Lessons from Kitties ♥

On occasion when our kids were young, I, along with some other mothers, would take our children to a friend’s family farm.

The kids played with newborn goats, jumped onto bales of hay, learned the art of whistling with blades of grass, picked wildflowers, raspberries that stained their hands purple and cherry tomatoes from the garden.

We moms would chat on the back porch when the kids played nearby. With a glass of sweet tea on humid summer days or hot coffee in the cool orange, red and yellow fall, we exchanged recipes, baby-sleeping strategies, gardening, canning advice, ambitions. We shared everything from the funny and sweet events that come in a life lived with children to the worries, frustrations and insecurities that are also part of family life.

On one particular visit, while I happened to be focusing more on the latter concerns -- feeling nervous, overwhelmed, stressed -- one of the littlest of the kids ran up to me, took my hand and led me to a warm, sweet hay-smelling corner of the barn. There she gently picked up a soft fuzzy-headed kitten from its mother’s side and hugged it. The mama cat blinked slowly and looked up at me nonchalantly. Mother-to-mother she said be like me.

Since then, anytime I feel a bit unfurled I think about that mama -- content, tranquil, unruffled. Sometimes I spend time with my own laid-back kitty when life becomes tense.

Cats just tend to remind us to live in the moment -- relax, unwind, let go of our need to control, simply live life.

I will always try to listen to their wise example ♥

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