Scrambles, the stress-less mess.

Stress is an ignorant state.  It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important.

-          Natalie Goldberg

Scrambles, chillin.

For the last hour, Scrambles has been switching back and forth between napping and cleaning himself. Because he is quite fat, he tends to miss some spots. I see him rolling and flopping around like a beached fish, struggling to get his little pink tongue to reach those spots. Then, with a resounding sigh of “meh”, he plops back down and takes a nap.

Scrambles doesn’t stress; he knows that in time, everything will get clean, even if he has to get Liono or Little Cat to help him. Everything that needs to be done will be. Now, this doesn’t mean that Scrams is lazy; he’s always bookin’ it around the neighbourhood, keeping a watchful eye on Pleasant Ave. However, he also understands that things take time, and taking time for himself is just as important.

In watching this mildly hilarious flopping routine, I came to the realization that lately I’ve been allowing myself to get heavy with my troubles, and denying myself time for reflection.

So, I have decided that today, I say “NO” to stress.

Of course, many of you are saying “HAH! If only it was that easy...”

But, in reality, it is.

We are faced with countless choices every day: what we wear, what we eat, how much money we spend and on what, what people we surround ourselves with, whether we go to work or school or stay home, whether to skip town and join the circus or steer our cars into the opposing lane and end it all...

We may think of these choices as obvious because they are innate and subconscious, but they still shape your lives. So why then, can we not make saying no to stress another one of these obvious choices? Can we not train ourselves- just as I, a lactose intolerant-ee, have trained myself to avoid dairy products- to denounce stress from our lives? Of course, I tend to fall off the wagon sometimes, and scarf a bowl of ice cream, but I never feel good afterwards. The same can be said about stress. We have been conditioned by society to think that it is just a natural part of the human experience, and we just have to learn to deal with it, but do we ever feel any rewards from it?

The masters of relaxation.

I believe that while we most certainly will all encounter stressful situations and relationships in our lives, allowing stress to permeate your mind is a choice, and how deeply and how long we allow it to affect us is completely our decision.

Scrambles could roll around all day, getting frustrated at the areas he can’t reach and the vastness of his rotund belly. He could get worked up and feel down about himself, looking at the other cats and seeing how effortlessly they clean themselves, and allow himself to feel inferior and stressed. Or, he could just take a nap, and go on loving himself. He knows that we will certainly continue loving him regardless.

So now, I think I’ll have a bowl of dairy-free ice cream, let my belly hang out, and take a nap with Scrams. And I won’t feel guilty for doing it.

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non essentials.

     -          Lin Yutang

Until next time,
Purr on, kittens.


 -  Katzendame


P.S. Need some inspiration or just a chuckle? Check this out.