This week, I was awakened by a blood-curdling scream…of the feline variety. Ruby, one of my cat roommates, takes her job as house guardian very seriously. Any neighborhood cat wandering on the property or the porch just exploricating, just purrambulating is the target of Ruby’s ire. She puts aside her usually sweet, sleepy demeanor and becomes a zealous, self-deputizing security guard. She races from window to window to keep track of the perpetrator, muttering to herself about how the neighborhood is going to hell in a handbasket. Her cantankerous caterwauling is usually met by puzzled blinks from visiting cats who know that whatever is behind the window will not deter them from enjoying their day. 

Now, in her mind, I know that she thinks that she is protecting her turf and her people, but from the outside, she looks like a crazy lady. That’s my roommate; she’s yelling at the TV.

I do that. I yell at the TV. Or the computer screen. I can’t believe someone said this or did that. Before I know it, I become a reactive mess. Staying in that reactive place is just mimicking and mirroring an energy running rampant in the world. It is a spicy place to visit, but I don’t want to live there.

Sometimes, when my feline friend gets wound up and takes her job a little too seriously, I pick her up or pull out her favorite toy to redirect her attention. I have to do that for myself, redirect my thinking so I am not a crazy lady! Redirecting our attention and energies is not spiritual bypassing or ignoring; it is preparing our minds to think logically and deeply and respond. How do you redirect?

 

Please continue to be fabulous
~LaVon