Furry Friends of the Feline Kind

Meet Zoey. I love this picture for two reasons, one...it captures her beauty...(isn't she elegant?),...two...it captures her spunk. Let me tell you, this kitty is one sassy bitch! Which is good, because she's an outdoor kitty, and I don't usually worry about her.

Zoey is the identical-twin of Zeus, who left this world a year-and-a-half ago. Zeus was "my kitty" and Zoey was "my daughter's"...well...as much as cats can ever truly "belong" to humans. But we have both been left behind, and so...Zoey and I have grown very close. She is, as far as I am concerned, my kitty now. And I honestly believe she claims me as her very own human.

Simon loves her too. And she???? Well...she tolerates him. :-)

A Bit of Verse to Tickle the Ribs

"The Revenant" by Billy Collins

I am the dog you put to sleep,
as you like to call the needle of oblivion,
come back to tell you this simple thing:
I never liked you--not one bit.

When I licked your face,
I thought of biting off your nose.
When I watched you toweling yourself dry,
I wanted to leap and unman you with a snap.

I resented the way you moved,
your lack of animal grace,
the way you would sit in a chair and eat,
a napkin on your lap, knife in your hand.

I would have run away,
but I was too weak, a trick you taught me
while I was learning to sit and heel,
and--greatest of insults--shake hands without a hand.

I admit the sight of the leash
would excite me
but only because it meant I was about
to smell things you had never touched.

You do not want to believe this,
but I have no reason to lie.
I hated the car, the rubber toys,
disliked your friends and, worse, your relatives.

The jingling of my tags drove me mad.
You always scratched me in the wrong place.
All I ever wanted from you
was food and fresh water in my metal bowls.

While you slept, I watched you breathe
as the moon rose in the sky.
It took all my strength
not to raise my head and howl.

Now I am free of the collar,
the yellow raincoat, monogrammed sweater,
the absurdity of your lawn,
and that is all you need to know about this place

except what you already supposed
and are glad it did not happen sooner--
that everyone here can read and write,
the dogs in poetry, the cats and the others in prose.

Year One Portrait

Something A Bit Different

You know what they say about bodies in motion? Well, Karen Walrond's self-portrait challenge has inspired me to share one of my photographs (the image at the bottom of this post) somewhere other than on my own blog.

On Friday, I mentioned Chookooloonks. Well, Shutter Sisters is another blog I follow. It's a community of creative women who share their photographs and thoughts. This site is a great place to go when you're looking for inspiration or a sense of kinship with like-minded women. These are the kinds of women I would like to invite to my house for dinner.

Anyway, each month Shutter Sisters hosts its own challenge, an invitation for women like me to contribute their own images. This month's challenge is centered around the theme "Focus," which works beautifully with my own recent experimentation...Annie Leibovitz writes in her book At Work about sometimes getting out of the way and letting the camera find its own shot, a "shoot-from-the-hip philosophy" if you will. And that's exactly what I did for the following image. I simply placed my camera on the ground, set my lens to autofocus, and let my camera do the rest. Pretty neat, huh?

Thanks, Annie.

If Simon were a parrot...

I'd teach him to say, "Hello, Beautiful!"



I have a confession to make. I am forty-one, have been married for fifteen years, and I still keep a Christmas card I received from a boy I knew in college. Why? Because it is the only unsolicited, tangiable proof I have that someone, somewhere once thought I was beautiful. That boy told me so in a card. We never dated.

My own husband, however, can't bring himself to tell me that I'm beautiful. He says it feels unnatural, forced. But it's not a matter of diction or his innate mode of expression. He frequently uses this word when he speaks of the weather. Frankly, I don't think he can bring himself to tell me I'm beautiful because he doesn't believe it to be true. Trust me. He can be painfully honest. The last time I tried to talk to my husband about this, he asked if anyone has ever told me that I'm beautiful.

The rest of my life seemed a long time to wish I were beautiful...until I discovered Karen Walrond's blog Chookooloonks. Her posts, her breathtaking photographs have helped me begin to heal my longings for beauty and being thought beautiful. Thanks to her blog, I have begun to see glimmers of the beauty she and others might find in me. And it is on the heels of my budding beauty awareness that Karen posted a new challenge, one I've decided to accept.

It's a self-portrait project designed to challenge readers to "reflect on our perceptions of ourselves, and start really seeing how beautiful [we] really are." So, for the next four weeks, I'll be taking a self-portrait every day, and I'll post these here on Simon Says on my new Self-Portrait page. Personally, I've always preferred to be behind the lens; this WILL be a challenge for me! But Karen says it's okay to take pictures of our feet, our hands, or whatever (so of course, my portraits may include Simon)...as long as I'm somewhere in the photograph. Good news for those days when I'm feeling exceptionally UNphotogenic. Stay tuned...let's see what I can do with this.

Oh, and check out her new book The Beauty of Different. The badge above is modeled after its cover. This one's on my Christmas list! And I've already picked a spot on a high shelf, far from the jowls of my mischevious weimy pup.

Landlocked

"Man is not an island unto himself."

-John Donne

September 2nd was an anniversary of sorts. It was the day my daughter walked out of my house and out of my life. While it has been a difficult year, one filled with sleepless nights and countless tears, I am living proof that time does heal. Time heals, and Simon has played an integral part in this process...by being. Just being.

Simon's "being" means that Simon has needs. Simon needs to be let outside every morning at 5:30. Simon needs two scoops of food when he comes in and another two scoops at night. Simon needs fresh water in his bowl. Simon needs baths. Simon needs clean blankets. Simon needs tennis balls thrown again and again and again.

Simon has needs, and I need to be needed. It's been a beautiful partnership really, because while I've been busy meeting all those K-9 needs, Simon has become the jelly to my doughnut. In fact, he does all the things the other boys in the house would rather not do. He is my constant shadow, ever eager to tag along at a moment's notice. He is my playmate, my chick-flick-movie mate, my confidante. He listens when I talk, and he never rolls his eyes at my jokes. Oh, and those daily affirmations! Such fur-filled praises and sloppy kisses!

While Simon can never fill the void my daughter has left (that one is hers and hers alone) he has taught me to find joy in unexpected places and at unexpected times. Each day, Simon teaches me something new about living in the moment and loving others while we can. Fellowship and friendship, while essential to the human condition, aren't uniquely human.

Hello Again!

Please forgive, dear reader, my long absence. I have no good excuses ...excuses are all they are. Know, however, that I have done a good deal of soul searching lately, and I do intend to be better in the future about posting. I find I have much to say. For now, please check out my Gratitude page. And feel free to comment or query.