Lippe catches a cold

Posted on 2012 Jan 10 by Kat

Lippe sitting in my purse

Lippe is ready to go!

Today, we wanted to take Lippe to the art gallery, so the three of us got in the car.

Lippe holding steering wheel

Lippe wanted to drive

Lippe offered to drive, but his feet didn’t reach the pedals, so he had to be content riding in my purse.

 

 

When we got to the gallery, it was closed. The gallery used to be open on Tuesdays, with free admission all afternoon. When did the hours change?

Disappointed, we went home again, and ate lunch. Andy tutors at an elementary school on Tuesday afternoons, so I had Lippe to myself for a couple of hours. I took him with me to run errands.

Lippe at the bank

Lippe at the bank

We went to the bank, where Lippe flirted with the teller, taking off his hoodie to show off his muscles. She was impressed, but warned him that it was winter, and he might catch a cold!

Macho Lippe, of course, refused to put his hoodie back on again.

Silly wookie!

After stopping for gas, I noticed that Lippe was shivering and sneezing. The teller was right—Lippe was coming down with a cold!

Fortunately, our vet’s office is right down the road, and one of the techs was available for an emergency appointment.

Lippe at the vet

Achoo!

The vet tech was very firm with Lippe. She told him he was lucky it was only a cold, since he could have picked up a secondary pneumonia infection. She gave him strict instructions to:

  • wear a shirt even indoors
  • bundle up in a hoodie whenever he went outdoors
  • eat healthy food
  • take his vitamins (she gave him a packet)
  • get lots of sleep

We went straight home from  the vet’s office, postponing the rest of our errands.

Lippe in bathrobe

The vet gave Lippe a nice bathrobe to bundle up in.

Lippe spent the rest of the day bundled up in his new bathrobe, sipping tea in front of the fire. (Did you notice how the bathrobe matches his eyes?)

No more adventures for Lippe until he recovers!

Lippe was introduced in yesterday’s post.

Posted in 2012-01 Beginnings, Friends | Tagged | 2 Comments

Notes for a future road trip: MJT

Posted on 2012 Jan 09 by Kat

I love museums, especially natural history museums. The highlight of my day in Oxford, several years ago, was the Ashmolean, with its geological specimens, stuffed dodo (the model for Tenniel’s illustration in Alice in Wonderland), and other curiosities.

While catching up with my pile of not-yet-read magazines, I discovered an article on unusual American museums in the June issue of the Smithsonian magazine. The first museum the article mentions is The Museum of Jurassic Technology.

The online exhibits definitely have the flavor of the older Ashmolean exhibits, and the photos in the Smithsonian article reinforce that impression. The MJT is definitely going on my list for a future trip to southern California!

 

Posted in 2012-01 Beginnings, Museums, Travel | Leave a comment

Lippe is here!

Posted on 2012 Jan 09 by Kat

Lippe arrived

Say hello, Lippe.

Lippe arrived late this afternoon.

Who is Lippe?
It’s a long story.

Several years ago, when I became aware of Twitter, I was eager to learn more. Wary of making a fool of myself under my personal or business name, I decided to test the waters by creating an account for my cat, Quark. Quark could make all the newbie mistakes and, when I was comfortable with Twitter culture and knew how to behave, I would start my own for-real Twitter account.

Tweeting as a cat was loads of fun. I discovered that there are thousands of pets with their own Twitter accounts, and a whole bunch of stuffed animals that tweeted, too. They, and their typists, were friendly and entertaining. One of the friends that Quark made was a German guinea pig named Mookie (Twitter name: @schnille). Sadly, Mookie died (guinea pigs are short-lived creatures) but his stuffed friends @fuzzyFreya and Lippe are still making friends all over the world.

Lippe, in particular, has become a seasoned world traveler. Over the past year or so, this little stuffed Wookie (kin to Star Wars character Chewbacca) has visited friends in many places, and had wonderful adventures, collecting postcards, clothes, and souvenirs from each of his hosts. His activities here will be quieter and less adventuresome than some of his hosts have provided for him. We’ll be showing him around town, and sharing some of our daily chores and pleasures.

Tonight, after his long trip, Lippe decided to spend a quiet evening here at home, getting acquainted with our three current Feline Overlords, Midnight, Cavendish, and Maxwell, and relaxing in front of the fire.

The first order of business was to light the fire.

Lippe supervises

Lippe supervises the fire-starting process

Lippe supervised piling the logs in the grate, adding the fatwood, and setting the whole thing ablaze.

Lippe watches the fire

Lippe watches the fire

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took a long time to get everything set up correctly, to Lippe’s satisfaction, but I think the results were worth it!

 

Unfortunately, Midnight is a privacy nut, and rarely allows me to get a photograph of her. I’ll try again later this week.

Cavendish and Maxwell, on the other hand, absolutely love the camera.

Lippe and Cavendish

Cavendish welcomes Lippe

Cavendish was a bit wary of the stranger at first, but after Lippe gave him a chin scratch and a tummy rub, he consented to share his pillow.

 

 

 

 

Lippe with Maxwell

Max enjoys Lippe's company

Maxwell soon lured Lippe away, however, with the promise of a warm snuggle. They spent the rest of the evening together, before going off to bed.

Plans for tomorrow include a trip to the art museum.

 

Posted in 2012-01 Beginnings, Friends | Tagged | 1 Comment

Before we know it

Posted on 2012 Jan 08 by Kat

“Time passes. If we don’t play with our kittens when they’re small, they’ll be all grown up before we know it.”
~ Fiona Robyn, Writing Our Way Home

Fiona was talking about the growth of her real-life kittens, Roshi and Tsuki, and the need to pay attention to life as it happens.

I like to think of it as a metaphor for cherishing Beginnings. A kitten is the beginning of a cat. A wedding is the beginning of a marriage. A sentence is the beginning of a story.

Beginnings should be nurtured, protected, nourished.

This week, I joined a new book discussion group. (Well, it’s new to me. The group has been meeting for several years, although I just joined yesterday.) I’ll have to miss the next meeting, since I have a previous commitment, but I’m definitely cherishing it. The book is interesting, as are the group members. We each come with different perspectives, different attitudes, different life experiences. Everyone talked a little. Everyone listened a lot, interested, respectful. I’m looking forward to future discussions.

This was a Beginning, and beginnings are important. I must notice and remember Beginnings. If not, before I know it, I will be somewhere else, doing something else, and all the wonder of that particular Beginning will be lost to me. Before we know it, we change. Before we know it, we forget.

Cherish your Beginnings.

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Fear and trembling

Posted on 2012 Jan 07 by Kat

Today was the first day of the Boar’s Head and Yule Log Festival at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, NY. Every other year, on the weekend closest to Epiphany, the church puts on an extravaganza of pageantry and music with a cast of more than a hundred adults and children.

Not exactly a worship service, though there are many worshipful moments. Not just a pageant, though the costumes and banners make a spectacular visual display. More than a concert, though the 60-member choir, strings and brass, and vocal soloists put on a very professional performance. It’s a community event, reaching beyond the immediate congregation to bring in a large audience for one last chance to sing favorite carols and whoop it up before packing the holidays away and going back to normal life.

At the very end, after the angels have sung, the shepherds have worshipped, and the kings have presented their gifts, the choir sings the great 4th century hymn from the Greek Orthodox Liturgy of St. James (trans­lat­ed from Greek to Eng­lish by Gerard Moultrie):

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

“…and with fear and trembling stand.”

Fear and trembling certainly described a few of the youngest cast members:

  • the young man with the angelic voice, King Wenceslas’ page, who forgot his lines during dress rehearsal, but was word- and note-perfect through both performances
  • the even-younger kids who carried the gifts for the three kings, struggling to remember to lift each gift high when the spotlight shone on them, and to walk slowly (but not too slowly) down the aisle, and to kneel in exactly the right place before the manger
  • the tiny Wood Sprite, who opened and closed the show, dancing down the aisle with a candle

They overcame their fear, and stopped trembling, in large part due to loving advice from the stage manager and many of the more experienced cast members. The advice they were given is worth remembering, for all of us, as we progress through our own dark and rough places.

  • “Take a deep breath.”
    Stepping back for a moment—remembering to breathe, centering—helps break the fear cycle.
  • “It’s OK to be afraid.”
    Fear is a normal reaction to the unknown, to things that are unfamiliar and threatening. Don’t feel ashamed or guilty about it. Accept the fear, but go on anyway.
  • “Listen to the music.”
    Take one step at a time, one breath at a time, slow step by slow step, in time to the music. It will bring you as far as you need to go.
  • “We all love you.”
    Your family and friends are wishing/willing/praying for you to succeed. Feel that energy carrying you forward.

 

Posted in 2012-01 Beginnings, Life, Music | Leave a comment

Always a beginner

Posted on 2012 Jan 06 by Kat

One of my quote-a-day subscriptions recently sent this, from Thomas Merton’s Contemplative Prayer (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969, p. 37):

“We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!”

I love being a beginner.

Much as I enjoy playing expert, teaching people useful stuff, explaining things that confuse them, I’m happiest when I’m learning something. Yes, I love using my new knowledge or showing off a new skill, but I’m always curious about what comes next, what lies underneath, they why of things.

My mother told me that the second word I ever said (after “No!”) was “Why?”. She  have been right. (Personally, I’d put it third, after “Panda!”. I distinctly remember saying that one, when I was very, very young.)

Why? was my favorite word all the way through school, and I seriously annoyed almost all of my teachers with it. Most teachers wanted me to remember facts, lots of facts. Since I could do that easily, they didn’t want to waste time with explanations and background information. They especially didn’t want me to ask why? when they told me to do something, or repeated a school rule.

The Why? obsession drove me to major in the sciences, instead of English (which would have been much easier for me). After college, that same Why? obsession led me to work as an R&D chemist.

I still ask Why? (or, sometimes, Why not?) manymany times a day: reading the news, developing websites, writing technical documentation, reading a book, learning new music, talking with friends, working out a project plan, even potting plants. Each Why? leads me to search for (and usually find) an answer, but there is always another Why? lurking in the background, and another behind that, and another, and another. Always more to learn, more to understand.

I will always be a beginner, and I’m OK with that. Really.

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Third Sentence Thursday: Celebration of Discipline

Posted on 2012 Jan 05 by Kat

From the first chapter of Richard L. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline:

“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”
~ Richard L. Foster

Deep people?
Who are they?
What do they do differently?

Deep people move beyond the comfort zone of surface living to explore the scary, uncomfortable nooks and crannies of their inner life, their relationships, and our increasingly interdependent world. They aren’t happy with the status quo, with only knowing what they’ve always known, being who they’ve always been.

Few politicians are deep people, for example. They have to talk in sound bytes, so I suspect most of them now think in sound bytes, too: shallow interpretations of issues and events, simplistic pseudo-solutions to complex problems. Complexity and nuance don’t win votes.

Foster’s book is intended as a roadmap for those of us who want to be deep people. I think I’m going to enjoy it.

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Capture a creature

Posted on 2012 Jan 04 by Kat

Today’s blog post at Writing the Way Home includes a quote from Ted Hughes’ book Poetry in the Making.

[I]magine what you are writing about. See it and live it. Do not think it up laboriously, as if you were working out mental arithmetic. Just look at it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, turn yourselves into it. When you do this, the words look after themselves, like magic. … You will read back through what you have written and you will get a shock. You will have captured a spirit, a creature.

Note to self: Gotta read that book.
[added to Read! 2012-01-04]

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Does life need a Restart page?

Posted on 2012 Jan 03 by Kat

A friend sent me a link to The Restart Page. It’s a collection of Restart dialog boxes from vintage computer operating systems. Each one has an active button that, when clicked, replays the entire Restart sequence from that OS. Cool!

It got me thinking about the need for a restart system for life—my life, at least.

I remember my first encounter with a daily restart, at a church youth camp when I was 12 or 13. We were each given a copy of Forward Day by Day, a quarterly collection of daily meditations. On the inside front cover were two passages we were to read as soon as we woke up.

A Morning Resolve

I will try this day to live a simple, sincere and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating, and sleep which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For Today

O God:
Give me strength to live another day;
Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or prove recreant to its duties;
Let me not lose faith in other people;
Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or meanness;
Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them;
Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy of conscious integrity;
Open wide the eyes of my soul that I may see good in all things;
Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth;
Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness;
and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls;

in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Later, after I discovered the regenerative power of writing, I adopted Julia Cameron’s technique of writing daily Morning Pages, as described first in The Artist’s Way, and the The Artist’s Way at Work. Cameron describes these three-page stream-of-consciousness exercises as “spiritual windshield wipers,” to clear away the creativity-stifling crud from one’s mind so one can clearly see the new day.

Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous have this daily restart thing nailed. They don’t talk about forever, or even long-term goals. They counsel their members to change their lives one day at a time. Every morning is a new start. A young high-school student I was mentoring through her senior project introduced me to this statement, which has been part of my morning routine:

“Just for today, I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

Just for today, I will be happy. This assumes to be true what Abraham Lincoln said, that most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.

Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my “luck” as it comes, and fit myself to it.

Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn, and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to—just for exercise. I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not show it

Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, act courteously, criticize not one bit, not find fault with anything and not try to improve or regulate anybody except myself.

Just for today, I will have a program. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision.

Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all by myself, and relax. During this half hour, sometime, I will try to get a better perspective of my life.

Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.” ~Kenneth L. Holmes

Daily restart? I haz it. Do you? What do you do to reboot your life?

Posted in 2012-01 Beginnings, Life | 2 Comments

I’m happiest when………

Posted on 2012 Jan 02 by Kat
i'm happiest when

Photo: M. Reza Faisal, from thoughtquestions.com

This was harder than I expected it to be. There are so many things that make me happy.

  • Singing. Singing almost anything. Singing keeps me sane.
  • Seeing a flock of goldfinches at our bird feeders (finally, after years of having the seed eaten and scattered by sparrows and squirrels).
  • Writing something that really nails what I think and feel.
  • Sunlight streaming in the window, perfectly highlighting my peaches-and-cream tiger cat.
  • Seeing a beautiful landscape out the car window as we round a curve. “Hark! A vista!”
  • Having dinner with my husband—delicious food plus delicious conversation.
  • Petting a purring cat.
  • Solving a problem, especially a sticky problem that seemed insoluble.
  • Listening and watching a live early music performance by superb musicians.
  • Launching a website I’ve designed and hearing the client say “Oh, WOW!”

So…what makes me happiest?

Learning. Encountering a new idea or concept or technique and making it mine. Streeeeetching my brain so I can feel it expand.

As a kid, my favorite day of the year was the first day of school. Trips to the library made me ecstatic, because I knew I would come home with a book about something new, a topic I didn’t know anything about yet. In college, I always tried to make time in my schedule for a new course, a subject I hadn’t studied yet. At work, I was always volunteering for new projects, or asking a more experienced colleague to show me a new technique.

Learning makes me happy. It doesn’t have to be anything profound, although that’s always fun. It doesn’t have to be anything useful, although I’m always grateful for that. But a day when I haven’t learned anything feels incomplete, unfinished, wasted.

Last month, I learned that one of my cats likes key lime yoghurt.
Not profound.
Not useful.
Just interesting.

Last week, I learned a new technique for incorporating a Twitter feed into a blog.
Not profound, but quite useful.

Today, I learned that the waterproof mat that I put under the poinsettia plant on the piano isn’t really waterproof, and the moisture raised and warped the finish on our 1903 Steinway.

Sigh.

Learning isn’t always pleasant, but it still makes me happy to know something today that I didn’t know yesterday.

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