Higher Calling

November 21, 2020

In case you don’t think 2020 has been a bizarre year, I call your attention to Exhibit A: last week, my mom’s cat turned down food for the first time in his 10-year life.

My fawning over Ash the cat, to continue a theme from my last post, is one of those ties to the outside world that keep me sane and make hard times more bearable. More than ever, I’m grateful that I live just a few miles away from Mom and my adopted feline brother. It would be difficult if I were unable to visit and tune into their lives when the going got lonely. (I can’t speak for Ash on this point.)

Although I’m lucky in some regards, I still pine for the days of hanging out with an unregulated number of people in a coffee shop for an unlimited time. At least I know that everyone else is in the same boat. Creativity will be the name of the game as we work to maintain our relationships this winter. I don’t mean seeing how many people we can fit in a Zoom meeting; I already attend meetings at work and have a thing or two to say about it (so do others, apparently). I mean real, emergent creativity. And good timing.

As I set out for another solo walk this afternoon, my phone rang with a call from a friend I haven’t seen in ages. I’m not a “phone person”, but very little time had passed before I was chatting away. When we both felt ready, we hung up. Knowing there had been a real person and friend on the other end of the line made me confident that something is waiting on the other end of this tough year.