The Cat's Meow

This morning while preparing food for one of my kitties who isn't feeling well and worrying about another one who seems to be less active of late, I caught myself thinking "if they could all just be HEALTHY at the same time!"


Wouldn't that just be wonderful if everything in our lives could be perfect? We would all have jobs that paid us enough to have healthy, perfect lives - enough food, able to afford health care (for ourselves and loved ones), safe houses and neighborhoods free from industrial waste or fumes.

A perfect life of being surrounded by people who truly love and care about your well-being in a world appreciated for its natural magnificence and free from exploitation and ruin.

A world in which peace is the rule, not the exception - people are kind and understanding. An education would include the building up of our very best natures - empathy, compassion, and the knowledge necessary to make everything better - perfect - less uncomfortable and hard with no one left out.

What if we could have the most fashionable clothes, the nicest cars, belong to the best clubs - would that be perfect?

I don't think there's anything wrong, particularly, with striving for excellence - for perfection; but life is not perfect.

In pieces and fragments, we can find some semblance of what may seem perfect, but true perfection will always elude us.

Life is not perfect - there is injustice, sickness, greed, and tragedy.

Shall we spend our days lamenting what is not, indeed, perfect or do we focus on what we can do, the things that are in our control?

To love.
To listen.
To try.

This morning as I thought about my cats, I remembered that I had choices. I didn't have to take any of them in. I could have left them in the street where they began - alone and tiny. It is very likely that they wouldn't be around had that happened, but I had the choice.

I chose to try. I chose to love. And that's not always easy.

How do we know whether to try or to turn away?

I guess there's no easy answer for that, but once we make the decision, we have to do our best.

No, life isn't perfect, but if we try and listen, we may find that life can be full and rich, especially when we love as best we can.

The cat's meow? It's an old American idiom and it means something wonderful, something awesome, maybe something fashionable. What a special realization that even though life isn't perfect, I can still choose how to behave in this world! Sometimes it just takes a gentle reminder that while life isn't perfect, when we do what we can with love, even the imperfections can be a blessing. The cat's meow.