One of the convictions I am trying to apply in my life is the belief that every single experience comes with a gift. And some experiences I have had,
my utmost shittiest experiences…
lead to some of the most joyous moments in my life.
I’m talking jumping up and down happiness.
I’m talking delirious joy where you could kiss everybody around you.
I’m talking (expletive) yehaaa!
I have two cats, a black and white, skinny long-legged eccentric and an ADD hyperactive clumsy salmon colored destroyer. Both of them come with a story.
I recently moved house. While preparing a move of location I opted to bridge the time by staying with my parents for a month. My parents have four cats and I brought my two along. The question was how well all 6 would get along. It’s always interesting to see the similarities between cats and humans. My extraverted cat was quick to blend in…but my introverted cat…well he’s not getting a lot of love from the pack.
The bigger fear I had going in with my introverted cat was more of an icky nature. He’s an outside cat that refuses all brands of cat litter and litter boxes. He’d rather do his thing on the floor…or preferably some comfy bed sheets. And here he was having to stay inside for a couple of weeks. And so for the first two weeks…toilets everywhere. Hell, even the other cats joined in. The washing machine was on almost 24/7.
I went on a desperate search to find the solution.
No more dirtied laundry. No more smells. It had to be over with. I had my creditcard on the ready as I scoured the internet for litter solutions. I found a hideous self cleaning litter-robot. It was bigger than a doghouse. Uglier than a garbage can. It cost more than a dishwasher. And who knew if it was going to work.
So I looked further…and found an elegant self cleaning litter box. No electricity or complex contraptions involved. Looks almost the same as an ordinary box. It was cheap to boot. I was sold!
And I don’t know about you…but I just loving receiving parcels through the mail. I get a christmassy feeling.
Even if it’s just a cat litter box.
I set up the new litter box. Positioned it. Poured in the cat sand and introduced it to my cat. He tilted his face as if to say “that’s a new box isn’t it”. He went straight in. I was already brimming with joy – he never would go in enclosed litter boxes. He was scraping the sand and checking it out. He seemed fascinated. I was staring intently as my cat considered whether or not to perform a toilet operation.
And then 15 minutes later.
He shitted.
I had tried a million times before to get him trained to use a box inside. Finally! I was so happy! I had that feeling you get when you’ve finally found the solution to a nagging problem. That feeling of having something work! That feeling of being released of your problem. And that neat sensation of…”this method is amazing!”.
With a smile on my face I was testing out the self cleaning mechanism now I had this fresh poo. I detested having to go anywhere near cat waste. Scooping litter is near the top of my least liked activities. But with this simple rolling mechanism my hands didn’t have to go near any waste. I caught the poo in a plastic bag and showed it to my parents.
“Look! It works!!! It’s fantastic!”. My mother raised an eyebrow and replied “you are awfully happy with that shit you got there, what the hell is wrong with you?”
And then I thought to myself…it’s true I’ve never been this happy about shit before…
But then I quickly reminded myself … And this has got to sound ridiculous…But there are two shitty experiences I had even better than this. In fact, much better.
Three yeas ago I lived on the top floor of a 6 story building. It was a hot summer night. I had the window open and the door shut…or so I thought. And here is where I introduce my other cat, the hyperactive ADD edition. Somehow that night he clawed the door open and while I was sleeping, he went of for a dive outside. Of course, he wasn’t wearing a parachute. He fell six stories down.
Now cats have a very poor sense of depth. And this one in particular seemed to have no sense of anything. You could stick a paper between two tables and he’d think it was strong enough to stand on. But I digress,
That morning I woke up and after I had finally found him, it took me a long time to accept that he had fallen 6 stories. Six stories!! He was x-rayed at the vet, he had broken all his bones from the waist down. Into little bits.
The vet in question proposed putting him to sleep. An operation would guarantee no success. The third option, the one we opted for, was to give him 6 weeks of absolute rest and see how he might recover. The two big questions however were if he’d start to eat and secondly whether he had the ability to toilet. If he couldn’t it wouldn’t of been a pretty picture. His bones were in such a mess.
So days later I got him back home, in a cage. And the eating part seemed no problem. His sole mission in life always had been the enjoyment of food. Even in the state he was in, he was still hungry for food. So I sat there, hoping he’d be able to shit. Everything depended on it. It was agonizing to wait. It was even more agonizing to see him not being able to walk. He needed to shit within 24 hours so I was told. It was crucial.
I sat there waiting. He could not walk. He wasn’t able to put any pressure on his back legs, an essential element to the toileting process. And then after just about 24 hours worth of painstaking wait, he got it together and did it. I was ecstatic! My cat was going to live, I was happy to tears…
Never will I be that pleased with a shitting than in that case. He recovered amazingly. He was walking within 3 weeks. I still can’t quite believe how he pulled that off. Since he was the hyperactive kind, he had trouble with the resting part. He just couldn’t stick with it. And he still recovered in incredible fashion. And what struck me even more than that, was that not once did he question his own ability to heal. Not once did he portray pity or the sense that he was a victim. His sole occupation was that of getting back to walking around, eating and chewing things apart like he has always done. And so he did. It was a great example to me.
But moving on to something more light hearted, the final of the three shittiest moments. This needs a little introduction.
Most people have no doubt heard of the law of attraction and well, first time I heard about it, I was fascinated with the whole thing. I devoured everything I could find that was written about it. I formed my own understanding of its concepts, which differs a lot than the presentation given in the ‘Secret’. An understanding that does not hinge on controversial interpretations of the workings of physics but is in harmony with common sense and my particular field of interest: psychology.
So you might know one of the quotes mentioned several times, by Oprah and others.
“Whatever you focus on expands”
And this one quote I have always found to be true in my own life. And I see it around me in the way that people in general tend to fixate on the problems of their life and the world, but not on the solution. And as you do this… the problem grows.
And with this in mind, I passed a street nearby and noticed the following. It was hilarious to me and made me think of that quote.
(This is picture is not for the fainthearted…specifically if you are eating, I might recommend not to click it.)
I’ll give you two words…dog and well…the other one should be obvious by now.
the funniest dog in the netherlands goes to work
So what is the moral of these stories?
All life we’re in pursuit of happiness and goals. We think about awards, riches, the ideal job, perfect romances. But the happiest moments of your life – were you feel real joy overcome you – often come from the unlikeliest of events. And happiness strikes you in different ways. The joy of having found a working solution and being rid of a problem. The overwhelming joy of having someone you love survive. And the stream of laughter over something incredibly silly. Makes you think.
What were your happiest moments in life?
hey that picture of the girl laughing is me. my cousin, morgan sutherland, took that picture.
Hey Juliette,
You have a fantastic smile!
Found your picture on Flickr, hope you enjoyed the post!
Peter
Peter
I read your post this morning and it made me laugh out loud, smile secretly, tear up unexpectedly, and just plain feel really good.
This Peter is one of the best articles I have ever read and being a magazine publisher, I have read a lot of them. You have a way with words, a true gift for storytelling!
After I read about your first experience, I couldn’t wait to find out about the other two. I was captivated, transfixed, sold! You have taken something really very ordinary, and made it extraordinary.
Thank you so much for that and for your insight and inspiration as to just how close true happiness can be, if only we have the eyes to see it.
Your cats are lucky to have you. You are indeed a gift to each other.
Blesssings, Veronica Hay