There’s not much more fun than photo editing my beautiful ginger cat, Jazmine, for an Irish pose!

So it’s St. Patrick’s Day…or in my world, St. Catrick’s Day. As with many holidays that have become Americanized, it’s strayed a bit from its original roots and evolved more into a general day for anyone, whether you’re Irish or not, to join team green and have some fun. I’m not much into the big parties, parades, drinking, kissing the Blarney Stone, or searching for shamrocks, but I do have a bit of Irish blood in me and I do enjoy dressing in green, being one of my favorite colors. I also love photo editing stuff around my cats to celebrate the day. Read more

Me, a book, and my cats. My everyday happy place…

Each year at the beginning of March, school children kick off National Reading Month by celebrating the birthday of the wonderful Dr. Seuss, who was born on March 2, 1904. Teachers develop contests, family literacy events, and more, and with the help from Read Across America, they hope to motivate kids to read every day of the year. For me, it’s a subject dear to my heart in so many ways. I was painfully shy through nearly most of my school going years, and I was also persistently bullied which triggered me to withdraw into a shell even more. Books were my comfort, my solace, my safe island, and my friends. Without them, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the day. Read more

It’s National Reading Month, so for Sunday Selfie, I thought this picture of Jazmine from 2014 was absolutely purrfect to share! She’s napping next to one of my favorite books, Dewey the Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, looking like she’s Dewey himself, only to grace the cover of her own book, Makin’ Biscuits – Weird Cat Habits and the Even Weirder Habits of the Humans Who Love Them, a scant few years later!!

Happy Sunday everyone – who’s your doppelganger cat? Oh, and if you’re looking for a great read for March, yes, Dewey is a great book, but Y’all,  so is Jazmine’s book –  it won three awards from the Cat Writers’ Association 2016 communications contest! Check it out here on Amazon!

It’s a Blog Hop!

It’s an interesting dichotomy. I’m literally one of the most goal-oriented, over-achieving, workaholics on this planet, but I’m also one of the biggest procrastinators you’ll ever meet when I don’t want to do something. My brain and body merge into a giant brick wall, rendering me helpless to the inevitable. I’ll do things I normally try to avoid – cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, laundry, grueling yard work – and I’ll also spend an inordinate amount of time, above and beyond what I normally do of surfing the internet looking at cats, leopard print, shoes, puppies, and stories of kids who hilariously react to parents who tell them they’re going to have a new brother or sister. But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and the time has come…to dig through my files of paperwork and begin preparing my income taxes. Read more

Enjoying an absolutely gorgeous day last year in Parkland, Florida, with this stunning horse, Sunny.

While a lovely sentiment and I don’t begrudge anyone who enjoys celebrating the day, for me, Valentine’s Day is not a day I’m prone to embrace. I don’t particularly want or need a specific day to have gifts, flowers, chocolates, etc. bestowed on me, but living a mere minutes away from Parkland, Florida, the city where the horrific shooting took place on February 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which a gunman opened fire and killed seventeen students and staff members and injured seventeen others,  I’ve had a change of heart and perspective.

My heart will forever be tied to these precious souls who lost their lives on February 14, 2018.

It’s difficult not to be reflective and feel a tremendous malaise in the air. Being the anniversary of the incident, it’s on the news all the time and my heart breaks all over again each time I hear something about it, bringing me to tears at the senselessness of it all. I Dan and I were in the vicinity of the shooting a few days before it happened, enjoying the quiet beauty of the day as we watched a horse competition. Parkland is a gorgeous community – peaceful, beautifully landscaped and idyllic in nearly every way. It’s hard to grasp something so evil was living within, grappling to come out in such a violent and premeditated way.

Paying my respects to the shooting victims at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

After the incident, the students rallied, parents rallied, the community rallied, as did the nation and the whole world, trying to make sense of it in the throes of grief. I’m not sure how one ever moves on, but we try. We have to. If nothing else, Valentine’s Day, and really every day, needs to be a reminder that we simply must try harder as people to love. Not the romantic love associated with Valentine’s Day hearts and Cupid’s arrow, but the love that comes from kindness, tolerance, and acceptance. We need to listen more, we need to care more, and we need to love more. We don’t know the shoes or path another walks, but perhaps if we were more invested in the small spec of the world each of us inhabits, many of the tragedies of today could have been avoided had we paid attention to all the little signs that were really big cries for help.

Every creature on this earth serves a purpose. Love, respect, cherish and embrace that purpose.

So give all those in your life you care about an extra hug, kiss, or smile. Pay someone a compliment – maybe even a complete stranger, as you don’t know how perhaps that small act could brighten their day in a moment when they really need it. Be less angry in traffic and more patient waiting in line at the grocery store. Extend that kindness to all living creatures great and small, including our earth that gives us the beautiful world in which we live. Be respectful of nature and be respectful of one another. Life is fleeting for all of us, that much I know for sure, so why not make it one in which every day is Valentine’s Day.