Me: Happy seems to be having fun.
Prodigal: He loves that!
Ready or not, Here I come! Yes, I am playing hide and seek. That age old game, that many children have played over the years. I am playing it with a twist. My cat is the one hiding and I am the one trying to find my cat.
Happy and I have a special bond. He was born in my home from a stray cat that I took in. Early on in his life, there were signs that he might be different. He was born in a litter with two other brothers. He would follow them around, and never went anywhere alone. At around 4 or 5 weeks, that something became known. This new kitten had been born deaf. He was not going to be able to hear any sounds in his life. I knew I would keep him in that moment and I named him Happy.
One of the games Happy loves to play with me is Hide and Seek. I don’t remember the exact day that it all started. This is how the game would begin. When he saw me, he would take off running to another room. That was the clue for me to realize that he was hiding and I needed to find him. When I found Him, He would cry out in loud meows telling me how thrilled he was that I discovered his hiding spot.
We would play this all the time, then he one time he added something new. We were playing and he took off running toward the bathroom. When I walked into the room, I saw Happy right away. If you look to the left there is my tub. My brown and white shower curtain hung on the outside of the tub wall instead of the inside. I would keep it on the outside until I was ready for a shower. Happy decided that this was the best hiding place of all. He quickly sat behind the shower curtain, so that he was sandwiched between the tub and the curtain.
Happy remained completely still. He was so quiet; I would not be surprised if He was holding his breath. Happy was faced toward the tub, and could not see me, or hear me. To him I am sure the outside world had all but disappeared. All he had to do, was wait to see if I would find him.
I was so glad He was deaf though, because the moment I walked into the room, all I saw was a shower curtain and a white tail with the white bottom of a cat sticking out from the shower curtain. I just started laughing. I laughed so much! He remained so quiet and still. He could not understand he had given himself away. I waited and pretended to look for him.
I then went up to him and moved the shower curtain away. He was so excited! The meows that followed were pure joy. This quickly became a favorite hiding spot of his. We would play that game over and over again. It was the greatest fun for the two of us.
Happy is an older cat now and He can’t move that fast anymore. So, we don’t play as often. I can tell though that game brought so much joy to the both of us. As I think about our time when we play, I can’t help but think of my other relationships also.
We are so stressed around others at times. We think we have to say the perfect words, act perfectly, and make sure we understand other people perfectly. Any activity has to be planned with precision and everyone has to be happy all the time with the activity. We wear ourselves out with the pressure that takes place in those relationships.
What if it is ok not being perfect? My fun came from a cat who is imperfect, with the worse hiding spot in hide and seek history. What if it is just accepting that happiness can come even with misplaced words, disrupted activity and not understanding everything about the other person.
Sometimes to find that happiness and joy, we just have to change our thoughts. The fun is not in a perfect picture post. The fun is in the experience of just being ourself. Happy is just being himself. I am enjoying that time with him, faults and all.
We might all be surprised how much people are willing to overlook some of our faults if we just allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to show them.
Maybe the next time you play that game, or are with someone. Show who you truly are. Let go of all that pressure. Maybe you can laugh even though the day was not perfect and you were not perfect either.
Ecclesiastes 7:9
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
