THE BLACK PEARL:

PART TWO

Okay, so I just wanted to show you a picture I took yesterday of the "two cats snuggling" scenario. Doesn't the little black thing look too cute with its paw resting under its sleepy head? You can't see it 'cause she's black? I know what you mean. I have to use the magnifier in PhotoElements to get in closer to see the details.

But today is a big day. The little critter is trying to open its eyes! They really are glued shut at birth, and I swear they have to pry them open one micrometer at a time once they are about a week old. For this kitty, it has started at the corner of the eyes near the nose and so it's just a tiny peephole to the world beyond that has been as black as she is up until this point. Maybe it works that way so that the retina, lens, and what have you get adjusted slowly? It didn't reckon with the flash on my camera! I keep checking every hour to see the progress. You KNOW I'm going to take a picture of the thing and blind it with the flash once it opens its beady eyes completely.

BLAM!!!

What I really wanted to write about is . . . 

do you ever wake up in the morning and feel BLAH for no apparent reason?

The coffee you had for breakfast doesn't get the motor running. The birds chirping merrily outside because Spring is springing, and they are telling the world how happy they are about it, but you feel like a rainy day on the inside so their singing is lost on your ears? You might even be asking yourself, "Is this as good as it's going to get?" as you remember the days when you wished you had more time to do all the stuff on your list . . .  take Cookie to dance practice, pick Ricky's shirts up at the cleaners, take your mom to the doctor, do laundry, shop for the dinner party you thought would be fun but is now looming in front of you and you still haven't gotten number 15 and 16 done on that list. You didn't have time to feel yucky. Or maybe you just didn't allow yourself. You took two Advil and continued checking things off your list.

Now you have more time on your hands and more time to feel everything. Maybe it's finally caught up with you so you have to feel it all now 'cause you didn't take the time to feel it all then. Great. What do you do with it? You stare out the window and feel as cloudy as the sky above and heave a sigh like Eeyore when he heard Winnie-the-Pooh's exclamation of "Good Morning!"

Eeyore responded by saying, "Good morning, Pooh Bear. If it is a good morning . . .  which I doubt."

He goes on to say that we can't all be "Gaiety. Song-and-dance. Here we go round the mulberry bush." 

I agree Eeyore. What to do . . .  what to do.

Is this depressing enough? Here you thought you were going to read some charming, witty Part Two and it's done a 180 on you and you're feeling a bit unnerved. "Thanks a lot!" you exclaim towards me. "I thought I was having a McDonald's have-a-nice-day day.

Go get a coke and try to rev yourself back up to the happy place you were in before you read this blog.

Cheers! (That was me raising my coke to you).

Or you might try this approach. I think sometimes about a song I heard growing up. I believe it may have been a Disney cartoon based on Brer Rabbit talking to Brer Bear about his Laffin' Place . . . a secret place that Brer Rabbit likes to go to laugh. (Uncle Remus stories).

It goes something like this:

"Everybody's got a Laffin' Place 

a Laffin' Place, I know ho-ho.

Take a frown, turn it upside down 

and you'll find yours I know ho-ho."

Where's your Laffin' Place? I should use a dose of my own written medicine, find my Laffin'/Happy Place, and transport myself there right now.

Ahhh . . .  I can picture myself on a lounge chair with the breeze blowing my hair. The air smells fresh with the hint of the scents all around me. Like the water that is flowing under the pier. It has its own smell, not like the ocean or a lake, that is trapped in one place. Like the warm sun on my face that smells like sunshine and feels like a caress. Like the myriad birds flying overhead, and the leaves in the trees brushing against each other in the wind. I hear the sound of a distant motorboat and the cry of an egret. I can picture it all, breathe it all and see it all in my mind's eye. That's my Happy Place. It makes me smile.

And wouldn't you know that my beautiful momma cat, at this very moment as I am writing about a happy place, jumped up in my lap, put her paws on my chest, looked into my eyes, and began to purr?

Suddenly all's right with the world.

 

(c) nancy 3.12.2010