We all ‘blink’ at things in life. Things that we don’t notice we’d miss until they were gone. We aren’t free from missing simple horizons right there in front of us – it happens more times than we’d like to admit to.
Don’t believe me? “I’m not like that, try me,” you say?
Ready…? It’s a tough test…blink first to make sure you’re awake!
- Did you make it to the bathroom in the middle of the night in the dark?
- Did you go through your morning routine without a struggle to remember the steps taken?
- Did you notice furnace noises kicking on and off?
- Did you drink a full cup of day old coffee before the next pot was done brewing?
- Did you notice stars shining in the sky when you let the dog out? (Okay…that might just be me, not everyone has a dog who gets up at the crack of dawn to do his job!)
- Did you pour your next cup of coffee before realizing you had drunk the first one?
- Did you walk past the pile of mail papers on the counter forgetting you said you’d get to that “later”?
- Did you lose count of how many times the cat mewed before you fed it? (Okay…that might just be me who has a food-obsessed cat…!)
Last week, I whizzed through the motions above without noticing until the last one was missing. Dessy wasn’t right under my feet begging as I made coffee. She hadn’t beaten me to the breakfast bowl. She wasn’t in our bed trying to wake my husband because I was too slow to the bowl. She wasn’t in the litter box doing her job.
The silence in the house was eerie and disturbing. I missed her and the meowing.
I rubbed my eyes, pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t sleeping? I couldn’t comprehend how she wasn’t there? After searching every room three times, I still couldn’t find her. I even tried coercing her out by shaking her food and her treats and calling her name. There is no way she could get outside unless a cat burglar got her. (That’s only in movies where a cat burglar breaks in to get a cat, right…?)
We finally found her. WTH? Did I walk through the house with my eyes closed? Nope. Blink, blink, blink…yep, I was definitely awake!
I was relieved to have found her hiding spot under a dresser. But she wouldn’t come out. Was she just sleeping in? It’s all a blur to me now.
We knew this was not normal cat behavior. If you’ve read any of my previous posts about Dessy, you know she adores food. Obviously, something was wrong. We checked her for pain and out-of-order cat things. No blood and no oozing out of openings. But she wasn’t purring and didn’t want to move.
We checked on her often – she spent the day hiding and sleeping – but not eating or drinking. We made a comfortable bed for her which she moved to. The next day she was better, and the day after that she was back to her normal self. Like nothing had ever happened. Was it an extended cat-blinking of some sorts? I don’t know.
Maybe cats are like humans in a way? Since I can’t ask cats if my hunch is right, let’s just assume it is so (it’s my blog, I make up the rules, right?).
But here’s the deal. We, humans, have check-out-of-life-moments; where we shut off from the world and just close our eyes to input. Vacations from life’s normal routines. Maybe cats are like to do that, too?
When we check-out every day as we go through our routines, is that okay? I guess, we need some sense of normalcy in our lives, where we don’t have to think too hard? But, is it okay to do it all the time? Or does it take some drastic upset to our routine to notice what we’d miss if it was gone?
Should we blink differently so we appreciate everything around us more often?
Like the people in our lives who we let walk by us without giving them a hug; pets who need brushing, petting or feeding; plants that need watering or de-gnatting (yes, that’s a word, I made it up); ignoring papers to sort or toss; dishes we forgot to wash or how often someone else is washing them; cards we bought but forgot to send to tell someone we were thinking of them; things that have blended in to everyday life needing our attention. (Insert your own list here, I won’t object – I’ll empathize for sure!)
Test yourself again – blink your eyes, look out on the horizon before you, blink again and open your eyes. What is in front of you, right now?
Did you notice something you didn’t before (no, not my blog post silly…!)? Did you see something that could use your attention that you’d miss if it was gone? Someone who wouldn’t object to a hug? Even if it is yourself that could use the hug? Yeah, me too!
But…first…gotta run, I just saw a gnat, that needs some attention. I might be wrong, I found something I would not miss if they were gone…
Haha, that is cute, especially the last two lines. We do have a lot of things that go unnoticed…until they are gone.
LOL – thank you! One of these days you’ll read I’ve found the way to rid my office of the gnats! 😉 Thanks for stopping by, I love hearing from you!
Perfect!
Thank you, Donna!
What gorgeous photos for this week’s open topic. Cats have such a great personality.