My body is tired. My brain is sluggish and my soul is weary. The house is nearly done but the work seems endless. Details, decisions and deadlines still rule the day. The puzzle that is our home slowly takes form. Small comforts creep back in to life – a stove, lights, a chair – simple pleasures and small respites from constant need to rebuild the home we tore apart.
Then, in the midst of all the work a new luxury appeared – a refrigerator with an ice maker. I’ve never had one of those before. Just press the button and ice fills your glass. In a moment a cold refreshing drink is in my hand, cooling my mind and renewing my strength.
During the last three weeks, Heather and I have been painting and tending to the last details of our remodeling project. The kitchen is now complete with appliances and granite counter tops. Now we’ve moved to the task of unloading the storage unit and bringing our belongings back into our home.
It’s a lot of work and this afternoon the work has gotten the best of me and I am tired, bone weary tired. A cold drink and a hot bath have failed to renew me. In my head a half written poem about being old fights for completeness, but my mind fails to find the connections between the dots. Fragments. Visions of days gone by. Hopes for the future fade into the need to work – to empty the unit. To bring home life back to normal.
I want to be done with this project. My back is sore and my creativity ebbs. My soul wishes to soar again but every keystroke is a chore and eyes are too heavy to look upward into the clouds. Every thought in my head wishes to just rest – to seek the sweet oblivion of sleep, of feet on the couch. The mind wishes to be numbed by an old comforting movie. Perhaps Kermit the Frog will sing me a song.
But there are the kittens. Yes, real kittens. About a month ago one of my contractors noticed a litter of kittens nesting in our front yard. I went to investigate and found a mama cat and five cute kittens. She didn’t seem like a lost house cat and her manor was aggressive. She is one of the many feral cats in the neighborhood.
By the next morning mama and kittens were gone. Just as I thought might happen – once the nest was discovered, mama moved her kittens to a safer place.
I didn’t see them again until Heather returned from England and then without mama cat. We thought they might just move on and then thought that mama had abandoned the kittens so we decided to feed them while we got ready to trap them. We couldn’t just let young kittens like that be left to fate.
Well, wouldn’t you know it – a few days after we started feeding the kittens, mama reappeared. Either she was sick, hiding, or maybe someone had caught her for a while. Who knows. What we do know is that we’re currently responsible for a mama and five kittens. They’re still fearful of us and won’t get too near but are willing to take the food. We’ve got a trap for the kittens but not mama, we’ll have to get one from the city.
Yes, we’ll trap them, get them to a vet, spayed, neutered, shots and hope we can find homes for the kittens.
New life. Joyous to see.
Now it is time to stop feeling old and weary and go tend to the new life in the garden.
Till next week,
Andrew
