Birthdays, Cats, and the Passing of Time
I celebrated my 52nd birthday this past Wednesday and so naturally it got me thinking of the passing of time. We are told to live each moment as if it could be the last, with quality and purpose, and yet so much of time is spent waiting to get from one point to another, with seemingly no purposeful meaning at all. Standing in the wrong long line at the grocery store, waiting on hold to speak with a live human on the phone for a customer service issue, sitting in the doctor’s office, waiting for your name to be called, and on and on. How much of our time is collectively spent in those often very frustrating moments?
I try to make the best of it – I preplan when I can with a book or by staying connected to the world with my iPhone as I multi-task with technology, but I think the worst loss of time is the one of agitated anticipation which is not the same thing as joyful anticipation, such as the wonderment of a child waiting for Christmas morning to come, for example. How many of us have a job or we are in a situation where we are counting the minutes, long, excruciating minutes of our life that we will never, ever get back to jump forward in time quicker? 4:45 pm…. Ugg…. Please, please, please become 5:00 so I can go home. Somehow those 15 minutes seem like an endless, painful hour and yet those 15 minutes are a precious gift of time that I am just throwing away because I want to be somewhere else…. Such as home with my cats who are waiting for me, ironically, like clockwork to feed them dinner.
This is what I am greeted by when I come home from work - a very impatient and hungry crowd of kitties waiting to be fed dinner!
The tick tock of a cat… they do seem to understand time in a basic sense marked by the milestone events of each day – dinner time, bed time, play time, nap time, grooming time – all of these moments contribute to the concept of what a cat perceives as time and they are incredibly intuitive without the need of clocks, email reminders, or alarms like us humans are accustomed to. In fact, if it were not for my own paranoia, I am certain I would wake up each morning in time to get ready for work because my cats already know what my schedule is and they are diligent in telling me to get up, moments before the alarm goes off.
Now obviously cats don’t think of time in the same way we humans do, based on the rigid structure of 24 concise hours in each day, but that is not to say that they don’t understand moments of time outside of the norm of their everyday life. An unexpected lizard that inadvertently wanders into the house causing delightful chaos, the onslaught of holiday visitors that disrupt the peace of the household, the disappointment of a Saturday morning outdoor jaunt cruelly halted by a rainstorm, the delicious sound of a bag of new cat treats being opened for consumption, or the unspeakably horrible sound a cat carrier makes as its doors are being opened to hold a cat prisoner – those moments are the equivalent to the unexpected highs and lows of the predictable timelines of our own human life.
There is always time to take a break for a tasty treat when you are a kitty!
But, for the most part, a cat has a very well organized day that is not consumed with the harried and frustrated sense that we humans often feel in today’s hectic world, rushing to get one task done, only to immediately start another. I think the only time my cats really feel that sense of frustration is dinner time which is to be served by me at 6:00 pm sharp. If I am late, Peanut will come and find me to tell me in no uncertain terms that it is time to be fed and I don’t need a clock to tell me that – her agitated body language is more than enough proof that cats understand the concept of time because I have tampered with her internal clock. And, of course, the irony of that anticipation is like that of Thanksgiving dinner – that wonderful meal that you have waited all day for to enjoy is eaten in a blink of an eye, a mere fraction of time…
Jazz is 14 years old and has become increasingly possessive with my time as he ages. I respect his increased need for my companionship and always make the time to give him extra loving and attention.
Older cats and cats that are near to passing on to the Rainbow Bridge also have an uncanny sense of time and the fact that it is not infinite. The ability for a cat to comprehend that its life is winding down is amazing to me and how they communicate that to us is even more extraordinary. They tell us with a simple honesty in their body language and behaviors that we need to slow down and pay attention to them, as each extra day, or hour, is precious and they want to share the last moments they have with us.
They don’t care that we have blog posts pending, or bills to pay, or laundry to be done. They teach us the most important lesson of all – that each moment we do have, even those minutes that might not seem to have a useful purpose – all those moments truly are precious and we do need to remind ourselves on occasion to just take a break, pet the cat so to speak, and treasure those 15 minutes, however long or short they seem to be…
Hi there Jazz, you sure are gorgeous. I don’t remember seeing you before now. Glad you got on the blog. That is such a good boy to demand your Mom’s time. It will do her a lot of good to sit down with you and just enjoy that time. Take care.
I don’t remember having seen Jazz either…what a gorgeous kitty! 14 is still young my friend!!! Hopefully you will have many years left with Jazz….now…if you will excuse me I have blog posts to write 🙂
Caren and Marg – Jazz does come out now and again on the blog, but for the most part, he prefers to stay out of the limelight and leaves all the crazy celebrity up to the youngsters!! 14 still is young and I hope for many more years with him as well!
You know I’m all about learning from our cats, and I believe this is never more beneficial to us than when it comes to learning to live in the moment, and to be mindful instead of rushing through our days. It’s challenging for many of us to slow down, to stop multitasking, and to simply be – and yet, it comes naturally to our cats.
Ingrid, I know from your own writings and experiences, just how true the lessons that cats can teach us are. It is a challenge to slow down and simply be, but I hope we all can do that every once in a while!
Jazz is a beauty. Hey, sitting waiting for the doctor…yep, now you know how we feel MOL!!!
MOL Brian…. you are so right, I can only imagine how you feel waiting for the doctor!
So glad to see a pic of Jazz. Every stage of a cat’s life bring new lessons. The older years are truly golden.
Layla – feline and human, the older years truly are golden!
I think that is why cats are so elegant in our aging. We know the importance of time and what is important to do in the time we have.
Very well put, Chey. I like how you describe the process as elegant.
Happy belated Birthday Deb…I know that I wouldn’t have been so reflective about time when I was younger and it is true that cats teach us the importance of time. You write so beautifully about exploring each moment and how our cats cat bless us with their meaning of time esp. when they’re hungry and they’re old. May this birthday year bring you many sweet blessings and plenty of time around loved one’s, four pawed and two legged.
Wendy – thank you so much for your birthday wishes and heartfelt comment.
Jazz is beautiful! He looks great! I think grown and older cats have character that kittens need to grow into!
Connie Marie – that sure is a great way about thinking of kittens and cats!! Very true!
Wishing you a very wonderful belated birthday! What a delicious post, and so very true about time. When did life get so urgent that we completely got our priorities so out of whack…?
Thank you for the birthday wishes, Lisa!! I don’t really know when life became so urgent, but we clearly are on a crazy treadmill where the “slow down” mode appears to be broken!
As I write this comment, Austin is impeding my progress by crawling over my lap trying to find his comfy spot! He does this at the same time every night and if I amnot sitting in the right chair at the right time, he lets me know in no uncertain terms! I just love him to bits. Wonderful post and of course absolutely true xox
PS I have done the Zee &Zoey giveaway post today 🙂
I love Austin to bits too, Carolyn and thank you so much for the generosity in the giveaway post!! xoxo
gtfuy
Above is Jelly Bean’s response, and now I’m typing around him. Just before that Giuseppe sat on the scroll down key. Now i’m getting headbutts from Mewsette. It’s Saturday! they say.Let’s play! which can even be cleaning the house. Before they totally disconnect me, happy birthday, and I agree totally with those wasted 15 minutes we try to hurry past. Each of my precious seniors has taught me that lesson of patience and living in the moment for what it offers and what you take from it. Happy birthday–we were the same age for most of this year!
Bernadette – As I have gotten to know you and your precious seniors the past few years, I find myself thinking of them when my Jazz comes to me. I know that you understand the deeper root meaning of this post better than some of us as of late and that is why I always stop what I am doing for him.
Deb, I hope you have many more years together, and enjoy this sweetest time with Jazz.
Wowwie! Jazz is beautemous!
Kisses
Nellie
Thanks Penelope! I agree, Jazz is a beauty!!
Happy Birthday, Ms. Deb! This is a great post! We think the humans could learn lots about life from us cats!!
Thank you for the Birthday Wishes, Island Cats and glad that maybe we could teach your human a thing or two!
Happy belated birthday. Your kitties are beautiful. I really enjoyed your post. My kitties always let me know when they want my attention. I do notice my oldest kitty(who is 20yrs) is wanting more of my time as did my other kitty before he passed. I try to give each one of my kitties quality time so they each feel special. I am lucky as I don’t work right now so I have extra time.
Thank you for stopping by to comment, Sue, and for the birthday wishes! Enjoy your precious kitties and give them a hug from me!
What a beautiful post, Deb. Such a poignant reminder of how much those 15 minutes can mean.
We hope you had a wonderful birthday!!! We are certain it was filled with love.
xo, Glogirly & Katie
Thank you Glogirly and Katie. I had a very nice birthday – very quiet, but filled with lots of feline love, which is a purrfect day in my book!
What a beautiful post, indeed!
It’s important to live in the moment and to find the little thing that will make a possibly boring moment a treasure, be it a little ribbon or a paper bag. Well, for humans it can be a rainbow, a funny video or being thankful to have a job, even if it is not purrfect, while so many others are looking for one (which also means being able to buy the kitties treats MOL).
Out of most situations, there is something good to take, if only a lesson. Of course, sometimes it is difficult to see it “in the moment” because we look for what is lost or what may never come… and we’re not in the moment any more.
Thank you for this lovely post.
Purrs
Thank you for putting my post into perspective, Texas and giving me the gentle reminder I needed. When I wrote The Chronicles of Zee & Zoey – A Journey of the Extraordinarily Ordinary, that was exactly the message my cats taught me – to appreciate the small, ordinary moments of life and make them extraordinary. After all, time is the most precious gift we have. You are a very smart kitty and I appreciate your comment very much. xoxo
Jazz is gorgeous! I loved this post, Deb. Thank you for, once again, pointing out the amazing wisdom of our feline friends.
Hugs!
You are very welcome, meowmeowmans! Glad you enoyed the post and took some inspiration from it!