This is Drooley, also known as The Heinous Cat.
For the most part, he’s cranky, grumpy, and afraid of everything. But I recently learned a little something about bravery from him.
I have a craft room that isn’t connected to the house. It doesn’t have heat or air conditioning in it, so if I go back there to work when it’s hot out, I generally just leave the door open. I’d popped into the room to do a quick mending job. My sewing desk belonged to my grandma, so it’s old and narrow, and made for someone about a foot shorter than me. Once I sit down and get my legs crammed beneath the desk to work the sewing machine pedal, there is no quickly getting back up.
So I was hurriedly sewing on my mending project, not paying attention to anything but the task at hand. Then I felt something furry brush over my foot. If I had been anywhere but at the sewing desk, I would have started kicking and jumping back and there probably would have been screaming and a few dance moves, too. But I couldn’t do any of that (except maybe yelp in surprise) since I was wedged into the open space at the desk. I had visions of an enormous mouse or (shuddering) a rat infiltrating my craft room. Afraid of what I was going to find, I pushed back enough I could see a furry tail swishing in the air. Quickly, I realized I was not being attacked by a rodent of unusual size. It was just the cat. Drooley had meandered in (which he often does)and crawled beneath the desk (which he has never done before) when I wasn’t watching.
He didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by the dire threats I tossed at him. He merely looked up at me and purred as Captain Cavedweller (who’d heard my shout of dismay) came running out to see what had happened. He picked up the cat, explaining to him how fortunate he was he hadn’t been kicked into next week and took him outside.
As I sat there, skin still tingling over imagined furry foes, I started to think about what the cat accomplished (besides giving me a good scare). He hadn’t thought about the consequences. He didn’t overthink what might happen. He bravely forged ahead to a place he hadn’t gone before.
It made me think about the places I need to bravely forge ahead. The ones I avoid because I overthink the results. I worry about the consequences. I fret over the reaction (of which I have no control over anyway).
I think it’s time for me to take a lesson from our obnoxious cat and gather up the courage to step forward without worrying so much about what might happen.
