Saturday, October 23, 2010

Annoyed or Delighted?

Whenever it's time to make up a bed with fresh, clean sheets, it's as if the cats know.

They run to the bedroom.  Soon, I wrestle two kitties out from underneath the sheets.  They return to burrow and tumble, peek out and retreat.   I coax them out, urge them to the side of the bed, and start to make the bed again.

Just as I tuck in the last corner and turn to smooth the blankets on top, I see the perfect round lump right in the middle of the bed and under my sheets.  

These cats!  They infuriate me!  I start from the beginning and remake the bed so the sheets and blankets rest smooth and precise.  Somehow, a cat wriggles his way back up beneath the covers and lounges there.

I hear purring.  I hear satisfied and taunting purring.

I look at that rumpled mess of a made bed.  No order, no smooth lines.  Finally I realize that as long as I have these mischievous felines, I will have a lumpy bed.  You can't make a bed properly with cats around.

Once I realize this, I just go about the process of making the bed differently.  I loosen the corners, I fluff up the blankets, and I invite a cat into caverns and caves I design. 

Those things I resist, those battles I fight, might be moments of surrender to the annoyance.  Some evenings, I retire to bed to see round lumps hiding under the covers.   Purring.  Loud purring.   It's funny.  It's endearing.  It's a source of delight.

Could the things that annoy me the most become a source of delight somehow?  Those things about my family members that I want to change might become endearing things.  Things I would miss if I didn't have them around.

3 comments:

Julie said...

Heather I am so enjoying your writing and your insight. Thank you for sharing with us!

Unknown said...

Years ago, now, I went round and round with a mother bird. She persisted in building a nest in the fan opening from my stove fan. Before I left in the morning, I would tear the nest out. She would re-make it. This went on for like two weeks. I never used the fan. I cried "uncle" and now listen for my baby birds every year.

jenny_o said...

Yes, the things that annoy us most CAN become endearing things. It does take time, though :)

Our cats love to "help" make the beds too. Your description was wonderful!