My cats are gone….I'm drunk.
I recently turned my two beautiful, sweet, hairy cats over to the care of the fine people at the animal services.
I liked my cats….enough. I was caught off guard by the welling of sadness when I had to explain to my 3 year old that we could not go check on the cats and make sure they were OK in their new “hotel room”. The word “pussy” does ring loud and clear right now for many reasons…
Fast forward two weeks.
Life has become surprisingly easier, cleaner, and more pleasant smelling. Have I been blind all these years? Well, yes.
I realize that I am simply a frog in a stew pot. For the better part of a decade, a small hairy creature has been occupying space in my home. Providing the service of “cute pet” for the majority of that time, this animal (which multiplied and became two) grew in size and mess. It was not all of a sudden that I became accepting of the piles and piles of hair that was shed and left for me on clean suits or on dinner plates; or the hundreds of pounds of toxic, soiled litter; or the gallons of bile and bio-sludge left on my carpet, furniture, and other various places of importance. No. All of those things came in small, manageable quantities.
If the sum total by-product of my “cute pets” had been presented to me on day 1- I would not have hesitated to kick those cats straight to hell. But I’m a nice guy, I don’t hurt animals. I drop them off and pay other people to hurt them.
I had a moment of clarity thanks to my cat’s vacancy.
Simplify.
I realized the burden of caring and the labor of cleaning were gone.
That feeling of freedom makes me intoxicated.
I realized I must be numb to so many other things. How long did it take for me to be content with a stained, dirty house? 7 years. And the cats were cute, but not that cute.
What other parts of my life am I blind to? I taste freedom and want more.
Simplify.
What do I love? Where is my passion? What have I tolerated? Can I please throw away all of that untouched crap in the garage????
Needless to say this emotional drunkenness has caused me to re-examine many aspects of my life.
I just thank Jesus that He is not like me. He is not blind and He loves me still.
I think another great question is Where am I? How did I get here and how do I get to where I want to be? I find its really easy for me to slowly move down a path I really don’t want to go down when I am not paying attention.
GREAT example, my mind is spinning with applications and other illustrations where I have done and probably still do the same thing – with what I watch, what I let my kids get away with, what we as God’s people fail to see in our relationships. Wow. Good post…
Yeah, for those of you who listen in, this one’s got sermon illustration written all of it.
Right in there with some hymns and songs like,
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it…
Naked and blind I come…
Thank GOD for His mercy and that He puts up with cats like me. Oh, there’s another angle.
PLAGIARISM I CALL PLAGIARISM!!! Don’t worry core if BP pulls out the story I’ll make sure you get your royalty check.
But seriously, I think self examination is one of the toughest things in the world to do. Without the right tools and the right people around you(too ask the right questions and to support you when you realize how screwed up you really are) it’s not nearly as effective.