(Originally published on December 19th, 2011)
I’ve told you about the Christmas Dog. Today I have a Christmas CAT story to share… 🙂
A few days ago my son came home from his walk with Sam the Dog, to tell me that they’d found a bloodied little calico cat on the side of the road. She seemed to be injured, wasn’t moving much, had just enough energy to hiss at the dog, but not much energy beyond that. I grabbed a towel (the yellow Pittsburgh Steelers towel my dear in-laws from Pennsylvania sent us several years ago when the Seahaws and the Steelers were duking it out in some bowl game – I figured if any of my towels was going to end up bloody, it might as well be that one) and followed the son to the kitty.
She was curled up on the side of the road, not moving much – except for one twitchy ear. She hissed defensively when I reached down to hold her, but I wrapped her up in the towel so she couldn’t scratch and held her close to me. I told the son to get my car keys and purse and meet me at the car, and I slowly carried the kitty back to our house.
Once I was holding her, she stopped hissing and fidgeting, and when I sat down in the car with her, she relaxed against me, laid her head on my arm and began to purr as I petted her head and ears. As the son drove us to the vet’s I sang the song I’d once sung, years ago, to the Christmas Dog. “Everlasting arms of Love, are beneath, around, above…” (words by John R. MacDuff) and the kitty looked up at me with the same look of trust and love that the Christmas Dog had once shown me.
I’ll be honest, the picture was not pretty. She looked to have been hit in the head by a car. Her jaw was out of alignment, and her eyes were filling up with blood. In my thoughts, I tried to establish who this little kitty was, as an expression of God – tried to establish her in my thoughts as God’s perfect idea, held whole, complete, and untouched by accident, in the consciousness of Love. What gave me some courage and confidence about the whole situation was the kitty herself – she seemed totally calm, totally unaware that she looked a mess, and completely content just resting on my lap, wrapped up in the towel. She was…well…she was very matter of fact about it all, to tell you the truth.
When we got to the vet’s I carried her inside (she was still purring), and the dear receptionist and assistant there immediately, but gently, removed the cat from my arms and whisked her away to a backroom. Before I left her there, they told me that a microchip had been found on her and that they’d try to contact the owners. I told them that if they couldn’t find the owners, I’d be willing to take responsibility for the kitty. (In the short drive to the vet’s she’d already managed to capture my heart.)
The next morning I called the vet’s to get an update, and was relieved to learn that the kitty was still alive, was actually doing “pretty good,” and was still purring. The owner had come in and decisions were being made as to how to proceed regarding the kitty’s jaw, which had been shattered.
This morning, on our way to church, we noticed our next-door neighbors had a sign in their front yard that read “Slow down” and we wondered if there might be some connection between that sign and the kitty-cat we’d found near their house two days ago. Tonight I knocked on their door and found that they were, indeed, the owners of that sweet kitty. They brought me in to look at her. She was snugly ensconced in a kitty carrier, half-dozing, and looking much better than she did when I first met her. The neighbors were happy to learn that I’d been the person the doctor had referred to as “The Good Samaritan” – “Mystery solved!” said Robert with a grin – and I was happy to learn that my neighbors were the owners of that dear kitty – I know she’s in a good home if she’s living with them.
And here’s the really cool thing: Because the little calico cat lives right next door to me, I’ll get to see her all the time!
Post Script: A year has passed since I originally published this post. The calico cat still lives next door to us and she is one of the sweetest, friendliest little cats I have ever known – she comes over and visits with us a couple times a week, lets herself be picked up and petted, and has even wandered into our home once or twice. And she’s still purring… 🙂
Joy! Peace! Good will to all (and I’m not just talking those with two legs)!
(excerpt from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book)
“There’s nothing more beautiful than a tree,” Alain Le Goff liked to say…
Photo of 700 year-old tree at Deception Pass, Washington by Karen Molenaar Terrell
“Look how they’re working …They’re linking the earth to the sky. That’s very difficult, son. The sky is so lightweight that it’s always at the point of taking off. If there were no trees, it would bid us farewell …You can see that the trunk of a tree is a thick rope. Sometimes there are knots inside. The strands of the rope work themselves loose at each end so that they can fasten onto the sky and the earth. At the top they’re called branches, and at the bottom, roots. But it comes to the same thing.”– Pierre-Jakez Helias, Horse of Pride
I love trees. They give us shade, shelter, and oxygen. They hold the soil to the hillside, fruit on their branches, and our tire swings above the ground.
Down the road from our house is a tree that I’ve come to think of as “The Giving Tree” – there are now two honey bee nests thriving inside its trunk, a little gardner snake home at its base, and a bird’s nest at the top…
Every year a little fir tree on the path along Bellingham Bay slowly begins accumulating Christmas decorations on its branches. Why this particular tree was picked to be the path’s annual Christmas tree, I do not know. But she’s a very jaunty little tree, and it brings me great joy to contribute to her Christmas finery, and to see her all gussied-up for Christmas.
“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” – Isaiah 55: 12
“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” – Psalms 1: 3
(all photos by Karen Molenaar Terrell)
photo by Karen Molenaar Terrell
(Text excerpted from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book.)
“Though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils error.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
Yesterday I got pulled into one of the oddest dialogues I have ever gotten myself pulled into – and, trust me, I have been pulled into some really odd dialogues in my life. One of my friends posted his feelings about the CIA-directed torture of prisoners held at Guantanamo and other secret holding facilities around the world. My friend was – as was I – appalled by the torture committed under the direction of the CIA. And then – I swear I am not making this up – somebody actually came onto my friend’s dialogue thread and asked, “Why is torture wrong?” Which. I mean. Seriously?! He wrote: “We should be proud that we ‘torture’. We should be proud to do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves. Torture is no more immoral than any other act of self defense.”
I replied: “Why is murder wrong? Why is thievery wrong? Why is rape wrong? Why is embezzling wrong? Why is kidnapping wrong? I mean… duh, right? Unless a person is totally lacking in empathy for his fellow creatures, I’m thinking the answer is self-evident – because it causes pain and suffering to another human being.” And then I asked, “When would torture ever be considered ‘self-defense'”?
It seems obvious to me that there is never an excuse for torture – never a reason when it could ever be justified as “self-defense”. Torture is an act of aggression, not an act of self-defense. Nothing good can ever be gained by using it. A person under torture is going to tell you what you want to hear – and it won’t always be the truth.
And that is all I have to say about that..
(Link to a Brennan Center Center for Justice article on the torture: http://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/us-torture-catastrophic-intelligence-failure-every-level )
Photo of clouds taken by Karen Molenaar Terrell in Haggen’s parking lot, Burlington, Washington.
T’was two weeks afore Christmas and all through Eff Bee
not a creature was stirring not a she, he, or me
We were prostrate and spent from the holiday bustle
not a twitch could be seen from the teeniest muscle.
We lay all unblinking in our respective beds
while visions of gift-wrapping swirled through our heads
And clad in our jammies and our way cool madcaps
we had the vague hopeful hope our bodies would take naps.
Holiday jangles and jingles pinged through our brains –
Presley, Crosby, and Mathis taking us down memory lanes –
and would we remember every member to be gifted?
We mentally went through our lists, hoping none were omitted
There were homes to be decorated and cards to be sent,
parties, caroling, and cookie-making, and we hadn’t made a dent.
But with a collective sigh we remembered there and then
that it’s really about good will to all creatures, women, and men.
And so our thoughts finally settled and our bodies relaxed
as we thought of those we love and a world festooned in pax.
With our hearts wrapped in kindness and the world as our ‘hood
We’re all brethren and sistren – and verily, It’s all good!
Karen Molenaar Terrell
(excerpted from The Madcap Christian Scientist’s Christmas Book)
by Karen Molenaar Terrell
I was toodling around with my photos – trying to put together a box full of stuff that makes me smile – and I thought to myself, “Self,” I thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if I could make jewelry out of pictures of sky, sea, and flora to share with my friends?” And so I did.
I also made that “box full of stuff that makes me smile” – I put in the box URLs to some of my favorite youtube clips, pictures of baby animals, and bits of Nature. It is a Christmas gift for you. Okay, so, like, it’s maybe not the key to a sparkly new car or actual jewelry you can really wear on your fingers and dangle from your neck, but it comes from the heart. And that’s got to count for something, right? 🙂
Merry Christmas!
Here are the URLs you’ll find in the box:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZlBUglE6Hc
Xander Terrell, who descends from a noble and spectacular lineage (ahem, he’s my son) is offering his book, Artful Living, for free on Kindle for the next five days. If you don’t own a Kindle… what’s WRONG with you?… No, just kidding, I’m sure you’re a fine and upstanding citizen of the world… but if you don’t own a Kindle you can bring Kindle to your computer or mobile by downloading the Kindle Reading App.
Link to his book: Artful Living
Link to Kindle Reading App: Kindle Reading App
And if you want to follow Xander on his blog (and who wouldn’t, right?!) go to xanderterrell.wordpress.com and join his legion of followers.
And now a poem from Artful Living:
Where Happiness Lives
Golden lights
and the deepest shadows.
Smiling faces illuminated by life.
A commodity where I come from.
An inherent condition here.
Where joy runs rampant,
like that one naked man who,
in the presence of a police officer,
streaked across the town in the wake
of the city-wide party,
the officer laughing in mutual enjoyment
before calling the man by his first name,
as a friend and a neighbor,
to get his shit together.
-Xander Terrell
If you enjoy Artful Living, please write a review and let your friends know about the book. The management thanks you. 🙂
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 