Pieces of the Whole
When I was in high school, we had a beautiful long-haired black cat named Salem. My mom still mourns for her.
In my area, shelters won’t let anyone adopt a black cat in October, for fear of what may happen on Halloween. Or after, when party people may just abandon the precious kitties.
If you have a black cat, I consider you very lucky!!
Image Credit: ©worldofvector–stock.adobe.com
“The cream always rises,” a favorite college professor of mine used to tell his classes, and like fools, we thought he meant if ever you were unemployed, or underemployed, you’d end up getting a great job. If you were top-notch, that is, and we all thought we were. Or at least hoped we were.
While there may be some truth to our naïve beliefs, having a superlative job isn’t everything. And it certainly wasn’t what our professor was referring to. He was close to retirement himself and had seen a long line of promising students fall victim to family tragedy, mental illness, physical illness and the like, compromising their ability to get the superior job they believed they were capable of tackling.
Still, they were cream, and they rose.
I have a friend, also from college, whose husband has ALS. Her honesty about the heartbreak and her integrity toward her family is a shining example of rising. Another college friend went through a series of tragedies, too much to detail here, and in her darkest moments she told me this just wasn’t what she expected out of life. Both women have persevered and are role models for me of how life will change you, one way or the other, and it’s up to you how you handle it.
Of course this isn’t a new thought and I’ve heard it, time and again. I’ve hoped that I’ve met life head on and come out ahead, even if my job is less than I expected, and I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose my car to an accident or whatever. But until now that’s just been hope.
I was discouraged the other day by disparaging words from yet another friend from college, someone who couched her thoughts in what I call God talk. Now, I’m a woman of faith, but not her kind of faith, which she believes is the only kind to have. She smiled while she spoke to me and basically questioned whether or not I had ever truly been a Christian.
Crying–yet also quite angry–I texted the friend who’d had the series of tragedies in her life. She amazed me. She told me I had been an example to her. Me? I was shocked. Now, I’ve been through my fair share (haven’t we all) but I never thought of myself as Cream That Rises. When I told her about that saying, she laughed and said, “I think we’re both cream.”
You just never know. I can tell you this, those who sit in judgment are not cream.
Image Credits: Boy raising hands ©beerphotographer–stock.adobe.com; Daffodils ©Aul Zitzke–stock.adobe.com
At the end of this post is an invitation for the author’s Art Appreciation 101 course. I’ve followed this blog for years now, and I can tell you, she knows what she’s talking about. Regardless of whether or not that interests you, I think this article has a lot to say.
Many of you have already seen this, but in honor of International Cat Day, I’m re-blogging one of my earlier posts about how Walter, Mimi and I became a family. Kiss your cats and give them a treat! (You’ll have to excuse the captions. They ended up anywhere but under the photos.)
I didn’t have a job. I owed the Cat Clinic hundreds of dollars for the care of the late great Paco. It would have been irresponsible to get a new cat. So when the pitiful cries of two little ones are heard outside my apartment window, I steel myself and say, I can’t save all the kitties.
In that neighborhood, at that apartment complex, people were abandoning cats all the time. It was one of the hardest parts of living there, and that wasn’t an easy place to live. It was devastating not to be able to help all the poor kitties who sat outside my window, crying. Fortunately, one of the other residents worked at a no-kill shelter, and she was usually able to find them a home.
The late great Paco.
I had only the screen open, so I closed the window completely. The crying fades…
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Eleven years ago, the United Nations chose this day as International Friendship Day. Apparently the idea had been around for a long time, but in 2011 they made it official–July 30 is a day to celebrate friendship and community.
Coincidentally, I already had plans to spend some time today with a few of my friends. But knowing it was designated a day to honor them made that time together a little more special. We played Scrabble (I actually won one game, which is practically unheard of) and I reflected on what these ladies meant to me.
![AdobeStock_513820228 [Converted]](https://myworldwithwords.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/adobestock_513820228-converted.png)
If I need someone to drive me to the doctor’s, Deb is there. If I’m looking for an honest critique of my writing, Madlyn is there. Both have taken care of my cats when I’ve visited my mom. They would have done it for free, in fact, Deb did several times, but now I insist on paying them. They will be there for me when I get bad news, and I will do the same for them.
Without my friends, I’d be lost. The only family I have in the area is a second cousin who reached out to me once, promised to invite me to dinner, then never followed up. My family is either two thousand miles west of me , a thousand miles east or 700 miles north. I talk to them frequently, but rarely see them. I depend on my friends for day-to-day support and conversation.
So on this special day I say to all of my friends, “thank you for being there, for the role you play in my life.” Happy International Friendship Day.
Image Credits: Heart in Hands, © Volha Hlinskay–stock.adobe.com, International Friendship Day, © Basratstock–stock.adobe.com
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