Lord have mercy.
Those words have escaped my lips more times than I can count this week, and not in the “Uncle Jesse from Full House” sense.
Felis Catus is, obviously, a blog about cats in general and Tabby’s Place in particular. So it has always been, so it shall always be, world without end.
But even a dunderheaded cat blogger can’t close her keyboard to a world shrieking for peace.
Wherever you are on any and every spectrum, whatever your beliefs, however you word your words and pray your prayers for our brothers and sisters in Orlando, I know we’re hand in hand in paw in heart in mouth on this one: we need us all.
No fear, no difference of opinion, no rip in the fabric of community is enough to turn off the love that makes us whole. In the immortal words of Stevie Wonder, love’s in need of love today.
And so I offer you and me and our nation and our world a prayer for peace beyond our powers, love beyond our boxes, wisdom from sources eternal and unexpected.
In the latter category you’ll find, as often, God’s non-human masterworks. I am, of course, talking about kittens.
I’m not trying to be cute here (not that “cute” wouldn’t be helpful in and of itself). When we’re feeling fractious and frightened and divided and torn, I think we can learn deep truths from small creatures.
If there’s one thing that’s true about kittens, before their cuteness, before their wildness, before their tiny ears…it’s the fact that kittens love kittens.
Kittens of their own litter? Loved.
Brothers from another mother? Loved.
Kittens they’ve never seen before, plunked like plump turnips into their beds beside them? Loved.
Loved easily. Loved wholly. Loved and loved and loved no matter what.
Kittens aren’t stupid. They don’t love each other because they think they’re all the same. Some of them are orinch and some are black and some have misshapen heads. Some like to bite tails and some like to sleep and some like to SCREAM ALL NIGHT!!! They have their differences. There are kittens on every side of every issue.
Love doesn’t make differences go away. But love means, “your differences won’t make me go away.”
It’s not that kittens err on the side of love. It’s that love is all they are.
I don’t know when and how they lose their default affections. I don’t know when and how we do, where we learn that some souls are too different or too dramatic or too dangerous to include in the great cherished “us.” But I believe, more than ever before, that the borders between our hearts are as made-up as an “evil kitten.”
We’re all in this together.
When fear knocks on your door, let faith and love answer.
And, if need be, bring a kitten.
I cannot put my swirling thoughts into words – so I am grateful for your voice. We are all in this together. Life is so precious – every life.