EXPECT LOVE
The newest addition to our family is a rescue kitty that we brought home three years ago. Back then, he was a tiny little thing with giant ears, a roaring purr and an other-worldly look about him that inspired his name – Yoda. Our first night together was torture. He meowed all night long, which was deeply upsetting to our two other cats, Rumi and Felix. I had hoped they would embrace young Yoda like a long-lost little brother who needed their comfort and nurturing – but, unfortunately, that was not yet to be. Thankfully, within a few days Yoda adapted to his new digs, but Rumi and Felix still went out of their way to avoid him.
We don’t know anything about Yoda’s earliest days except that he had been abandoned. In spite of these inauspicious beginnings, Yoda boldly approached his two feline brothers with an attitude of eager expectation, as if he were absolutely convinced of his innate lovability and it was only a matter of time before the rest of us recognized it as well. We quickly nicknamed Yoda our “pleasure pig” because the little guy has an amazing ability to elicit love from everyone around him. When Brian or I are not cuddling and stroking him, he is nuzzled up to the older cats to be licked and groomed.
This morning, as I watched Yoda enthusiastically park himself next to Felix, I realized that even though Felix still occasionally swats at or ignores Yoda, most of the time he just automatically begins to groom his little brother. In his funny feline way, Yoda is the perfect example of the art of “living as if,” which I explain in detail in The Soulmate Secret. Unlike many of us humans, Yoda knows that there is plenty of love in the world and that he is worthy of giving and receiving that love. Unburdened by the pain of the past, he joyfully anticipates that the love he feels toward his new feline brothers will be returned. And the vast majority of the time, it is!
If you choose, you can take a lesson from wise Yoda: Be the loving person that you are; live in the knowingness that you deserve to have a loving, committed relationship; and take every opportunity to let love in – even if it comes to you in the form of a cat.
