Seamus - Professor of Patience

I woke to the soft, plaintiff meow of Seamus, my gorgeous, long-haired tabby. It was Saturday morning and I desperately longed to sleep in. Yet there I was groggily rolling over to allow him to crawl up on my tummy to for some quality petting time well before any alarm clock I might of set was due to go off.

As I lay there scratching him between his ears, listening to the loud rumble of his contented purr, I smiled to myself remembering how a few years back this would have never happened.

Our other cat, Rudy, had been very insistent that he needed a companion in the middle of the night. So off to the Humane Society my son and I had headed. Seamus had caught our eye immediately. And in the getting-to-know-you room he was Mister Lovey-Dovey, sweeping us both off of our feet.

We brought him home expecting an easy transition. I pictured myself sitting on the sofa with him curled up in my lap. After all cats love me. I'm not sure what Seamus's previous life was like, but easy is not how the transition went.

He spent most of the first six months camped out on top of the kitchen cabinets. He only came down at night when we were in bed. When he finally quit hanging out there, he moved into my son's closet, hiding in its dark depths. I wondered if this was going to work, if we were the right home for him, if he was ever going to adapt.

I remember my surprise the first time he reached out with his paw to catch my hand and pull it towards his head. He was sitting alertly on our coffee table and I walked by on the way to the kitchen to get my morning tea. I stopped and scratched his head. And believe it or not, my more-than-timid cat began to purr.

Working to help Seamus feel safe and loved in our home has been a lesson in patience. Author David G. Allen defined patience this way, "Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind." I find it requires acceptance and gratitude.

It requires me to release my own expectations of how things should be and when they should be that way. It calls me to allow what I cannot rush, what I cannot control to unfold in its own time and in its own way. Had I not allowed Seamus to adapt on his own time and in his own way, I would never have known the treasured moments we share. In fact he may have become so stressed we may have needed to find him a new home.

Patience flows easiest when we learn to be grateful for the process. With Seamus, I celebrated each milestone. Each step he took towards socialization and integration within our home. His first time headbutting me. The first time he and Rudy groomed each other. The first night he lay on the pillow next to mine.

Change is difficult, but patience allows us to find peace in the turmoil.

#change, #patience, #expectations