Second Anniversary – Cats Out of the Box

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of my blog “Cats Out of the Box.”  A friend of mine gave me permission to use this picture of his cat, Alvin, sitting in a box, for this celebratory post.

It is time once again to say thank you to those who inspire, support, and encourage me through this process.

• To those who follow my blog, you are the reason I keep writing.
• To those who have posted comments, thank you.  Your comments enhance my creative work, provide additional thoughts, and inspire me to continue.
• To those who like my blog posts, I appreciate the positive support.
• To my friends and family who continue to put up with me asking them random questions about random topics (labels, life in color, money, fear, boundaries, etc.).  I appreciate that you are still willing to answer my questions and provide insights to complicated subjects.  You help me see the big picture and all of the details within that picture.
• To my family, thank you.  What can I say?  You, especially my nieces, provide some of the best material for my blogs.  I love you all!
• To Eric, once again thank you for allowing me to use your poetry in my blogs.  Poetry is food for the soul and your words have been a feast for mine.
• To Deb, thank you for encouraging me, inspiring me, letting me bounce ideas off of you and for going hiking with me.  Many good ideas and blogs happen because of conversations with you.
• To Jenn, thank you for letting me use your story, and the before and after photos of your kitchen for the post “Need to Create.”  It was one of my favorite blogs to work on and post.
• To my students, you know who you are, thank you for your friendship, creativity, enthusiasm and support.  You have inspired many of these blogs.  You teach me far more than I feel I teach you.
• To Sue, thank you for your encouragement and mentor ship in blog writing.  Your support is appreciated more than you know.
• To Joe, this blog would not exist if it wasn’t for you.  Thank you.

I look forward to another creative year of writing “Cats Out of the Box.”  Thank you for joining me on this creative journey.

 

Today

“And I think the freedom I’ve gained is the fact that I no longer have to worry about what happens tomorrow because I am happy with what I’ve done today.”                      -Edward Snowden

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I often talk about living in the moment or experiencing your life as you are living it.  As much as I talk about it, you would think that I have it mastered….. nope.

Just recently, I was caught up in tomorrow and as you know tomorrow never comes.  There is yesterday.  But yesterday is over.  As much as I would love to go back and change things….I cannot.  I was agonizing over things that I cannot control, crucifying myself for not preparing myself, looking back at things I could have done better, and many other trivial things.  My thoughts and attitude were so negative that I couldn’t stand being around myself.  I was so caught up on yesterday and tomorrow, I wasn’t living in today.

Thank goodness I got an attitude adjustment.  It came in the form of conversation while having coffee with a friend.  She said something (and I am paraphrasing here) about trying not to be so judgmental because so often it causes one to be very negative.  These words were like a double shot of espresso to my soul.  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  And it had to come from someone I trust, whose opinion I respect, and in a way that I could hear the message.

Here is what I heard from our conversation that affected my mood and point of view; you cannot change the past, you can prepare for the future, but you are alive right now.  Here and now needs your full positive attention.

When I am in full on self-loathing critique mode, I am so negative.  The energy I was producing and sending out to the universe was the energy that I was attracting.  This negative energy can become as dangerous as a hidden whirlpool in the Missouri river.  Negative thinking can become a vicious cycle of negative wish-fulfillment.

I started thinking on my drive home, how negative I had been.  I needed to change my thoughts and change them immediately.  I had been allowing other’s negative words and moods bring me down.  I had decided to make a concerted effort to be positive and approach this immediate moment with optimism and focus.

It has been a couple of days since my coffee conversation epiphany, and I already feel lighter.  Like the quote from Edward Snowden at the beginning of this post, I want to be happy with what I’ve done today.  This is my goal for each and every day.