life

A Little Bit of Everything: Q&A, Merlin Mayhem, Music, and More

/ Katie / 11 Comments

Happy Friday! It probably goes without saying that these last several weeks have been pretty busy around here, with house things and pregnancy things. My pregnancy symptoms, at least and at last, have started to subside, and I finally feel a little more like my usual self. So, how about a post to catch up with each other today? A little bit of everything going on around here, and also a check in with all of you.

So, first: How are you doing? How’s life? What are you creating? What are you excited about? Anything making you anxious? (Everything’s making me anxious right now.)

Moving on, I’m getting pretty close to 1,000 followers – which, thank you, all of you, for reading and commenting! – and thought it would be fun to do another Q&A. I did a couple when I hit 500, and I think it’s safe to say, a lot’s changed since then. So, if you’ve got questions for me, drop a comment below!

What’s next? Oh yes. Merlin. He’s still growing and he’s a new cat every day, but the one constant, which is so very wonderful, is that he loves – and I mean absolutely adores – his Annie-dog. I’ve never had a cat so enamored of a dog. She is his best friend. I don’t think she feels the same, but I also don’t think he cares. He also firmly believes he’s one of the contractors, and loves to hang out with them (and “help”) while they’re working. Cats…

And lastly, I’m planning to post some more music soon! I’ve got lots of videos from Thanksgiving (yes, I know, that was all the way back in November…) that it’s just taken an eternity to get off of Graham’s camera and onto my computer. We had a little get together with family, and I love sharing my family music with y’all. So, expect to see those at some point in the not too very distant future.

Other than that? I expect things won’t slow down anytime soon. Lots of continuing work on the house, some fun writing ideas, a new baby on the horizon – it’s lovely chaos around here. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And before I forget, one more thing! I’ll be taking the day off on Monday, since Graham doesn’t have to work. So, no post then. But I’ll be back on Wednesday. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a good start to the week!

Home (A Poem)

/ Katie / 7 Comments

I’ve built my house,
on a bed of dreams,
a million little hopeful timbers,
with nails made of joy and grief.
Life takes hold of us that way,
you know –
the sweet made sweeter
by bitter loss,
the loss made better by
the time that came before.
Funny, that I didn’t even realize,
how the building and building
never felt like a chore.
And now, my house moves
with me wherever I go,
but also stands
forever at a crossroads,
a perpetual choice between
this and that
or that or that.
And though it doesn’t matter,
I wonder:
How many lives have I
not chosen?

Wild Things (A Poem)

/ Katie / 15 Comments

I’m thankful for the wild things.
The dew that slicks the blades of grass,
the bee at his work,
the birds who fill the air with song,
the kits in their den dreaming of play
and the deer in the meadow bathed in snow –
outside my door,
a whole world turns not in days and hours,
but in moments,
seasons and sensations.
In the changing of the leaves,
the rising and setting sun,
these little lives go on and on
until they don’t,
and then, like a breath between words,
they’re gone.
How much we could learn
from the brave, wild things,
if we’d only each take time
to wait and watch,
to sit patiently with
the silence before the storm,
the crickets’ evening concerto,
the breeze through the fields,
the morning’s cacophony.
They exist, not for us to see
as a space apart,
but with us, in us.
We, too, could be brave, wild things.
We know it in our hearts.

On Time, Change, and a Maine Coon Cat

/ Katie / 15 Comments

Graham took this picture of Merlin today:

Sometimes it hits me just how big he’s gotten.

I hardly ever find myself wishing that I could stop time. I generally like thinking of the future. I find it exciting, all those possibilities and knowing that if I’m going through a rough patch, it’s only for right now. And that applies to good times, too. Everything is only a moment, and while sometimes that’s hard, I generally view it as a net positive. Being stuck, even in a happy time, would just be boring.

And then, I look at this little kitten that just won’t stop growing and I can’t help but think, “Slow down!”

I don’t have children, so this is as close as I get, I think, to what parents feel watching their little ones change every day. Merlin is a new cat almost every hour. He finds new places to explore and to nap, he likes something and then he doesn’t, he wants all the attention and then to be all by himself. The only constant so far is that he desperately wants to be Annie’s friend. She’s not interested. He’s not giving up.

He’s almost six months old, and I wonder what he’ll look like, what he’ll be like, in another six months. And then in the year after that, and after that. It’s exciting, as it always is for me, to think of the future. But it’s also a little sad, because he won’t be this new baby forever. He’ll grow and change and he won’t be the same. And eventually, hopefully a long, long time from now, and just like Gatsby, who is still so very loved, he’ll die. But he’ll always be Merlin.

(Feel free to laugh as I talk about my pet like a human. I’ve long ago accepted my impending future as a crazy cat lady.)

And then I remember that that’s true for me, too. And for Graham. And for all of us. It’s easy to get caught up, even knowing that everything is really, truly, temporary, in hard times and unhappy feelings, in being down on yourself or feeling stuck in a rut. For many of us, I think the world we live in tends to demand that we occupy a certain spot, like that’s where we’re most useful. But we’re all new, every day. The greatest thing about being human is that we are free to change and to grow as much as we want to, for all the days that we’re alive. And we’ll still be us, even as we learn lessons and try new things and make mistakes.

It’s wonderful, isn’t it?

But it’s also stressful and scary. And absolutely unavoidable. Life happens.

The best we can do is live.

There Is a Time (A Poem)

/ Katie / 15 Comments

There is a time for
all things –
for grief,
love,
and change,
and for
the way forward.
There is space
enough
in this world to
feel,
to learn,
to see,
and to grow.
This, we know,
even in our worst moments,
and on our
saddest,
sweetest,
shortest,
longest days.
We don’t get to
choose
the minute
or the place,
but they belong to us.
We are
made
to live.