Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. 🙂

I did want to give you a quick update on my cards and letters project. I do have all my cards and letters sorted into groups based on who sent them to me. So they are now organized in a way I can begin to tackle which cards and letters I can hold on to for family history and which ones I can let go. I look forward to showing you my reduced pile in a couple of weeks. I also have a trunk load of items ready to go to charity. It was a good week for working on becoming a Minimalist.

One thing about enjoying everyday life is developing an understanding that developing joy deep down in our hearts doesn’t mean that everyday is going to be easy and without life’s challenges.. Life can be really hard. In fact, life is devastating at times. True peace, joy, and love exist in a place beyond our emotions, a place we find when we silence our minds.

I was reminded this weekend what a precious gift it is to be fully present in any given moment and not to be anxious about what may come to be at some point in the future.

Some of you know that this weekend a routine trip to the vet for vaccine updates ended up providing me with some troubling news. My vet believes that one of my cats, Rushette, has an aggressive malignant melanoma on her gums. There needs to be a biopsy to be certain but the vet did seem pretty confident she knew what she was seeing in my cat’s mouth. Unfortunately, my vet didn’t have a lot of advice or comfort for me. ” Sorry to drop this bomb on you.” She said as she started clearing up her equipment. Standing there trying to  process the information I had just been given, I asked what I could do to make things easier for Rushette. The reply was ” nothing.” The vet proceeded to tell me she would write-up an estimate to have the biopsy done before leaving me alone in the room with  a hundred questions starting to pop up in my head. The only thing I knew for certain was that if the vet was correct, Rushette’s time with me would be short and her quality of life would go downhill quickly. Just so you know, I am going to a different vet to talk about the biopsy procedure. There is no such thing as kitty Hospice. It will be me that is responsible for making Rushette as comfortable as possible and helping her with her transition out of this world. I need a vet who understands this fact. I have said ” goodbye” to many pets over the years, Rushette is not the first, nor will she be the last. Each loss is different and it is always painful. When we allow ourselves to love, the experience at some point always turns bittersweet.

Once arriving back home I spent many hours observing Rushette. If she has a terminal illness, she is showing no signs of it just yet. She is enjoying everything from her special dinners to her snuggle time with me and all of her little daily adventures and pleasures in between.  Rushette, like all 4 legged kids and the very wise, lives totally in the present moment. Observing Rushette this weekend reminded me that it doesn’t matter if I have hours, days, months, or God willing, years with Rushette or anyone that I love. I have lifetimes worth of love and joy given to me at any given moment in time.

Despite the fact that I am looking for a different vet to perform Rushette’s biopsy and give advice, I do not hold any ill feelings towards my current vet. ( I should also mention another factor in this decision to switch vets centers around the wait time of almost two weeks to get results back on the biopsy. It is not 1985 and I know there are places that can get the results to me much sooner, if not immediately. In a case like Rushette’s two weeks is time wasted if there are options to be considered.) It was a very busy Saturday in her clinic and I know  she loves animals. I also know there is never a ‘good’ way to give people difficult news.. Her answers to my questions were given from a pragmatic and scientific approach to my questions.

After observing Rushette, I did come to my own answer to the question ” Is there anything I can do to make things easier for Rushette?” The answer is yes. I can be fully present in the moments I have with her. Give her the love I always give her but do it  in a state of awareness .  Tell her I love her often throughout the day. Invite her into the backyard with me when I  go outside so she can pretend like she is a  lion in the grass and enjoy the fresh air. Be aware of her presence  as she snuggles up to me in the evenings. View feeding  her, changing her litter, and vacuuming up fur as part of the joy of having her in my life and not a chore to put off as long as possible.  If she shows signs of illness talk to her about what is going on. Pet her and assure her that I am there for her. Affirm that I will make the best decisions possible on her behalf.  As I go about the day, be happy and do not dwell on the ‘what ifs’  that enter my mind. Remember that I have two cats, both of whom need my love and affection and do not inadvertently neglect Gracie’s need for love as I focus on Rushette. Give thanks daily for the blessing of having wonderful 4 legged kids in my life. Accept that in this world nothing is permanent and everything eventually passes away.

What is precious in this world and gives life its value and meaning is not the things we own but the love we freely give and receive. As we go through our lives we will experience every conceivable emotion as we deal with life’s highs and lows. Beyond the rising and falling emotions there is a peace, joy, and love that transcends emotion. May you experience this joy, peace, and love each and every day!

As always, I would love to hear from you. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Until next time,

Laura