Picking up the cat
Or how everything is practice / Issue 1,444
Oh, hi friends!
Alright my fellow goslings, we talked about the reality that your next milestone is scary close. We talked about believing, even when it's absurd.
What are we focusing on today?
Picking up the cat.
Colin and I adopted Lula from the ACC in September 2021. Her "history is a mystery, as they like to say. Legend has it she was living as a "rat catcher" in a corner store basement, but didn't like her job very much so someone dumped her at the shelter.
The shelter clipped her ear, thinking she was a feral street cat. (They do that before returning cats to the street, so people know they're fixed — it's a good thing!)
But it turns out she's not feral.
She's a marshmallow.
Now her job is to live as the shy queen of the Upper West Side.
What does Lula the cat have to do with your project? Your hopes and dreams?
Well, she is a total sweetheart (to us and a few visitors), but does not like to be picked up.
I can’t accept that, lol.
I want to hold the marshmallow!
About a year ago, I started to pick her up more often. Only when she's in a chill mood.
I barely scooped her before she gently pressed her beautiful claws into my forearm, signaling "absolutely not."
Then I put her down.
But I kept picking her up, every day. Just for a second or two. Then put her back down.
Up. Down. A little routine.
Yesterday, I picked her up and held her for — I don't want to say three hours, it was probably like 45 seconds — but she leaned into me and didn’t wriggle away, and I thought: This is it.
Every day, you have to pick up the cat.
This is the practice of making anything.
Laying down the track, turning the page, opening the stupid document that scares you.
You have to pick up the cat.
Even when it's sort of ridiculous.
Even when the claws come out.
You do it once. Then again.
You pick up the cat and do your work. Whenever you can, for as long as you can.
Lula only knows how much progress you can make.
This Is Part Three.
Read Part One: Are you just two weeks away from your next milestone?
Read Part Two: How to believe it’s going to happen for you.
Wrote your words on an index card and will keep it front and center. Thank you so much.
You have to pick up the cat. Whenever you can, for as long as you can.
Sweet cats, they always share the right answer.
I love this so much. I've been picking up both the proverbial and actual cat as well, making progress getting past myself and into a groove. And hoping Shirley will learn to love loving. Thanks as always. Lula is beautiful 🥰