P is for perseverance…and love…

People let me tell you ’bout my best friend
He’s a warm hearted person [cat] who’ll love me ’til the end
People let me tell you bout my best friend
He’s a one boy cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy
lyrics by Harry Nillson

(something about that pink nose…a much younger Percy/ Julie Cook)

If you’re anything like me… well…
you’ve probably had your fair share of four legged or even two winged pets
during your lifetime.

I counted it up today and Percy, the last of my cats during this 63 year run of a life,
actually totals number 7.

Let’s not count the dogs, one bird, one mouse, one hermit crab, a myriad of fish
and countless found wild little animals that needed tending too…
simply put, it was always the cats… and in particular, it was
always Percy who seemed to matter most.

Percy came into my life 13 years ago last month.
I wrote the following post about him after about two years in living with him–
because by this time, he’d completely stolen my heart–
the link is here:

My Best Friend

And I might add that I’ve actually written many posts about Percy…
posts about his life, his rescue, his surgeries, his endurance…
but most importantly and simply put, I’ve written about his perseverance.

For you see Percy is short for Perseverance.

When I found myself staring at the tiny maggot covered, broken, bruised and
bloodied mass that was actually a kitten barely clinging to existence—
a kitten who had been thrown from a car and smacked up against a fence post…
this tiny mess of a baby…I knew any name this animal would have,
would have to measure up to this wee one’s sheer will and determination
to survive.

A strong name for a seemingly helpless mangled mess.

But what you need to understand in all of this is that I didn’t,
my family didn’t, rescue Percy—it was Percy who found us to be his rescuers.
He found us, because as odd as it might sound, Percy sensed–
yes this tiny broken creature seemed to know that we’d give him that chance
that he needed and obviously desperately wanted…a chance to thrive.

And yet however…in the end, it was and will always be Percy who rescued me.

Time and time again, Percy rescued me.

Yes, it seems that I just wrote a post about losing my older cat Peaches…as she
had to be put down after battling jaw cancer.

We already had Peaches when Percy came into our lives.
And just like that, this older cat who had never had kittens of her own,
quickly accepted and took on Percy as hers.

(Percy and Peaches at this newest of homes / Julie Cook / 2023)

Yet Percy wasn’t like other cats; not like any I had ever had before.
Even vets would comment that Percy was not catlike but rather more doglike–more
intuitive, not dismissive or elusive but rather… just more of an old soul.

Percy was the most expensive pet I’ve ever owned.
No thoroughbred, no exclusive breed…just basically a mutt so to speak.

The costs came quickly…
there were the exams and meds and fluids just to see if he’d survive
his first week with us.

A cage, food, bedding, toys….

Then there were surgeries early on to repair the damage done to his face..
damage caused by humans who must have been void of their own humanity.

Then there was the metal rod installed by an orthopedic surgeon to repair a
torn achilles tendon.
The 12 weeks worth of rehab.
More cages.
Casts.
Meds.
The ensuing bone infection that required trips to the vets daily for injections and pills
for a good 7 weeks.

And most recently there was the emergency room trip.
The oxygen box.
More meds.
The IVs
The infections.
The X-rays.
The kidney failure.
The suspected congenital heart failure.

And yet…he overcame…once agin…or so it seemed.
For there was always the perseverance.

The desire to be.

The bond between us was (and will always be) inseparable.

13 years…with all the additions and subtractions in a family.
The retirements, the lives, the deaths, the moves, the ups, the downs, the divorce…
the one constant was always…Percy.

Well…yesterday…Mother’s Day…my best friend’s heart simply gave out.
It suddenly stopped beating and he stopped being…
just as a piece of me also stopped.

Percy was seemingly my only link to a life that was bridging a life that was and
a life that is…he was the last bit of brittle glue bonding two worlds…
and now… that last link, that brittle little glue… simply stopped breathing.

Do animals, our pets, go to Heaven?

Well, that’s been an age old theological conundrum for ages…
but I have always said that God knows how much our pets mean to us—
on all sorts of levels.
How much they do for us and how much we do for them.

I think the God I know…knows.
He sees and He knows.
And he cares, even for the least of these.

Many will say that Percy was lucky to have found me…
but if the truth be told, I was and I am the one who was the luckiest of all
that Percy found me.

He taught me and continues to teach me what it means to Persevere.

Thank you my dear little friend….

The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made
Psalm 145:9

Way back when:

Not a recent good look! Despite countless water bowls around the house, Percy always preferred drinking water from a recently finished shower…or remnants in a bath and most recently… something a bit more disturbing…

However the most content was simply to rest on a perch next to a warm fire…

won’t you be my neighbor

“Love is sacrifice.
Love sacrifices itself for its neighbor.”
Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

“People are almost always better than their neighbors think they are.”
George Eliot

(the next generation of neighbors / Julie Cook /2023)

In my neck of the woods, neighbors can have either two legs or four.
However, if the truth be told, the majority most likely come with four…
that is unless we count all the birds…be that songbirds, crows, turkeys, grouse,
etc…but I digress.

So imagine my surprise while I was mindlessly walking toward the kitchen sink
when suddenly something odd caught my attention.

It was as if some sort of super power laser vision took over—-
my eyes immediately locked on the eyes of another….

There were wee brown eyes curiously peering in at my green eyes.

All the while, eyes locked… this curious wee one was making a bee line
toward my kitchen window.

Seeing how small my inquisitive new friend was,
I knew mother couldn’t be too far away.

And just as I suspected, it just so happened that mother was close…
close near the front door. Yikes!

Throwing caution to the wind, I grabbed my phone, heading out that same door..
all the while my young friend had quickly retreated
meeting back up with mom on the opposite side of my car.

It seems my wee friend has a few siblings who aren’t as bold nor as
adventuresome.
Yet that matters not because a new group of neighbors have made their presence known…
and I am the better for it.

“When I say it’s you I like,
I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more
than anything you can ever see or hear or touch.
That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without
which humankind cannot survive.
Love that conquers hate,
peace that rises triumphant over war,
and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”
Fred Rogers

Picture this…

“Only the poet can look beyond the detail and see the whole picture.”
Helen Hayes

“If God’s not in the picture, then all I’ve got is a frame.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough

(a pristine Spring day/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

A year has passed by since my life flipped on its head and I moved from Georgia–
moving to the mountains of North Carolina.

When I moved, I moved with a torn ACL that had not been fully rehabbed.
I had a brace on my knee and my world in a thousand boxes.

I’ve lived with a torn ACL before but that knee served its full time in rehab.
Surgery has never been recommended…either tear.
But rehab was a must.

I don’t play tennis nor do any pivoting type of activities–
I’m pretty much usually moving simply forward, backward, up and down…
should there be any need to twist or pivot…then it’s all she wrote.
Lateral movements are not possible and God forbid I hit a slick spot and
need to maintain balance.

I had thought that I could do the necessary exercises on my own,
but time, settling and logistics muddied the waters.
My current home’s incline is a far cry from the relatively flat
to rolling curvatures of Georgia.

Therefore it’s slow and steady goes the race.

So I’ve managed to put the brace on a shelf and have found my way to a nice walking
path down the mountain.
The walking path is carved into a large pasture. Two loops making a mile.
The path meanders by a trout stream then back out into a sunny wild grass field.
It’s been created and maintained by a local fire department as it butts up to the
back of the station.

One might not think walking a flat gravely path out in the middle of a pasture
could offer any sense of wild natural beauty…but you might be surprised.

A while back I found a great little app for my phone…PictureThis
It allows one to take a picture of a plant, tree, shrub, nut etc and it will identify
the mystery.
It offers descriptions, plant information, care information,
latin names, species, genus, etc.
What’s poisonous, what’s edible, perennial, annual, deciduous or not…

I often find myself stopping along my laps, taking quick snaps of what most folks
would consider pesky weeds only to discover tiny treasures under foot.

So imagine my surprise when I spied what I thought was
just another wooden telephone pole… only to discover it was a bit more.

Back in Georgia, telephone poles are typically tall brown, creosote embalmed pines.
The poles in my North Carolina area are more grayish in nature with a distinctive
mottled wood pattern.

Curious, I pulled out my phone and opened the ‘picturethis’ app—I snapped a picture
and quickly learned that this pole is actually a Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pine.
Who knew?!

The app could actually identify a common processed telephone pole

So if you want to enhance your wanderings…I highly recommend getting the
PictureThis app for your phone.

(creeping buttercup / Julie Cook/ 2023)

(Mountain Laurel / Julie Cook / 2023)

(Mountain Laurel / Julie Cook / 2023)

I assure you that it is not by faith that you will come to know him,
but by love; not by mere conviction, but by action.
John the Evangelist is my authority for this statement.
He tells us that anyone who claims to know God without keeping
his commandments is a liar.
St. Gregory the Great

one of my new heros…out of the mouth of babes…

…and said to Him, “Do You hear what these are saying?”
And Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”
Matthew 21:16 NKJV

(Liam Morrison, 12, reads a statement during a Middleborough School Committee meeting on April 13. (YouTube / Middleborough Educational Television)

I admit that I’ve been rather sporadic here in blogland for quite some time…
ever since my personal world took a major turn.

My time is now different.

It’s a busy time…but in a much different way than it once was.
Busy good.
Busy sad.
Busy full.
Busy new.
Busy different…but all busy just the same—
…and like I’ve always said, busy hands keep the devil away…
or I think that’s something more like ‘idle hands being the devil’s workshop’…
or something along those lines…just meaning,
keeping busy, you don’t get in trouble…

I should also add, that over the past year,
I’ve been quite remiss with my traditional overload of all things news and politics.

During my time of ‘exile’ and divorce, I basically quit watching the news…
or much TV for that matter.
At the time, life was pretty glum as it was, why would I want to pepper that with
the sordid details of the real and unreal happenings within our now very
upside down world??

And so now that I’ve been on a more even keel for nearly year,
I still don’t watch the news, but I do keep up via various news apps.

I say all of this because I caught a story the other day that sparked my interest.

I’m not sharing this story so much because I feel the need to repeat my
feelings regarding the current two gender drumbeat…
because in my mind that’s a no brainer…I took biology…
I may not remember everything that was taught back in the 8th grade but I do remember
that there are two genders, end of sentence.

I don’t share this story because I’m still rather clueless in not understanding
the growing letters found on some rainbow flag and the need to keep adding letters
and symbols…
I tend to be a one flag nation kind of gal—red, white and blue you know.

I share this story because there’s a seventh grade young man from Massachusetts
who seems to know a lot more than most of most of us adults…

By Ashley Carnahan / Fox News:
A 12-year-old student was allegedly sent home from school after he refused to change
his T-shirt that said, “There are only two genders.”

Liam Morrison, a seventh-grader at Nichols Middle School in
Middleborough, Massachusetts, said he was taken out of gym class on March 21
and met with school staff who told him people were complaining about
the statement on his shirt and that it made them feel “unsafe.”
His comments were picked up by popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok.

“Yes, words on a shirt made people feel unsafe.
They told me that I wasn’t in trouble,
but it sure felt like I was. I was told that I would need to
remove my shirt before I could return to class.
When I nicely told them that I didn’t want to do that, they called my father,”
he explained during a Middleborough School Committee meeting on April 13.

“Thankfully, my dad, supportive of my decisions, came to pick me up.
What did my shirt say? Five simple words: There are only two genders.
Nothing harmful. Nothing threatening.
Just a statement I believe to be a fact,” he said.

Morrison added that he was told his shirt was “targeting a protected class”
and was a “disruption to learning.”
“Who is this protected class?
Are their feelings more important than my rights?” he asked.
“I don’t complain when I see Pride flags and diversity posters hung
throughout the school.
Do you know why?
Because others have a right to their beliefs, just as I do,” he said.

“I was told that the shirt was a disruption to learning.
No one got up and stormed out of class.
No one burst into tears.
I’m sure I would have noticed if they had.
I experience disruptions to my learning every day.
Kids acting out in class are a disruption, yet nothing is done.
Why do the rules apply to one yet not another?”

The student said “not one person” directly told him they were bothered
by the words on his shirt and that other students had told him
they supported his actions.

Morrison told the committee he felt like the school was telling him
it wasn’t OK for him to have an opposing point of view and that he didn’t
go to school that day to “hurt feelings or cause trouble.”

“I have learned a lot from this experience.
I learned that a lot of other students share my view.
I learned that adults don’t always do the right thing or make
the right decisions.
I know that I have a right to wear a shirt with those five words.
Even at 12 years old, I have my own political opinions and
I have a right to express those opinions.
Even at school.
This right is called the First Amendment to the Constitution,” he stated.
(my emphasis)

“My hope in being here tonight is to bring the School
Committee’s attention to this issue.
I hope that you will speak up for the rest of us,
so we can express ourselves without being pulled out of class.
Next time, it may not only be me.
There might be more soon that decide to speak out.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Middleborough Public Schools for comment but has yet to receive a response.

finding a happy Spirit in the Spring

“Since happiness is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good,
and since the highest good is above,
no one can be happy unless he rises above himself,
not by an ascent of the body, but of the heart.”
St. Bonaventure

(hidden amongst the clover / honey bee / Julie Cook / 2023)

The Spirit is not content with burning only in the center of your being.
He longs to illumine and inflame your whole being,
so that you not only have a fire within you,
but you become entirely a living flame of love.
Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D
from his book The Holy Spirit, Fire of Divine Love

(hidden amongst the clover / honey bee / Julie Cook / 2023)

after the rain

“There, about a dozen times during the day,
the wind drives over the sky the swollen clouds,
which water the earth copiously, after which the sun shines brightly,
as if freshly bathed, and floods with a golden luster the rocks,
the river, the trees, and the entire jungle.”
Henryk Sienkiewicz, In Desert and Wilderness

“Is the spring coming?” he said.
“What is it like?”…
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

(the Mt. Mitchell range after the rains/ Julie Cook / 2023)

this is from a post I wrote one April morning 8 years ago…

When life has been demanding and there seems to be no time to self…
No time for…
noticing,
reflecting,
observing,
savoring…
No moments for a luxuriously exhaled Ahhhhhhhhhhhh…

It is at just that precise moment…
that single moment between breaking apart and holding on…
when eyes have glazed over,
nerves are at their rawest and stress is out the roof…
At that very and utter almost unbearable, catastrophic, breaking moment,
it is then…that it happens. . .
The familiar, the comforting, the nostalgic slips gently back into place…

An old familiar friend returns.
You find that long forgotten item of fuzzy feelings and internal warmth.
Happy loving memories come flooding to the forefront of the heart.
It is at that single miraculously wonderful moment that suddenly…all is once again,
right with the world…and you find that you can hang on one more day…

And so it seems as if I’ve stumbled across that previous post at a rather
fitting juncture in my life…a time that finds me at the proverbial fork in
the road.

It is fitting because after this previous winter…a winter that,
like most winters, vies to keep a tight hold on all that is…
holding on to the bleak, raw and barren…

And much like this previous year…a year not unlike others that has
often left me wondering if I could indeed avoid that seemingly inevitable
catastrophic breaking point…

A rain, not necessarily a storm mind you,
but rather a good old fashioned heavily grey, saturating rain comes along…

And it is precisely when those very final drops of rain are wrested and wrung
freely from what was just moments before thick and consuming,
that clarity is amazingly revealed.

For what was mere breaths prior cumbersome shades of all things tonal and dull…
is now suddenly washed anew. Scales fall from weary eyes unaccustomed to that
which is now brilliant and glistening.

A season has passed in the blink of an eye and all that was, just moments before
heavy uncomfortable and unbearable, radiates through a million freshly fallen
prisms.
Rays of blinding pure white light now bend on command as the colors of all
that was and all that is and all that will be, breaks anew…
reminding each of us that we can indeed hold on for just one more day…
hanging on with youthful expectation rather than aged trepidation.

All things now made new…

“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:18-19

Redemption comes…

The Scriptures contain many stories of people who waited years
or even decades before the Lord’s promises came to pass.
What modern believers can learn from the patience of biblical saints like
Abraham, Joseph, David, and Paul is that waiting upon the Lord has eternal rewards.
Charles Stanley

“Memory haunts me from age to age, and passion leads me by the hand–
evil have I done, and with sorrow have I made acquaintance from age to age,
and from age to age evil shall I do,
and sorrow shall I know till my redemption comes.”
H. Rider Haggard

(Bumble bee, Julie Cook / 2015)

this is from a post I wrote in 2015 –it was Holy Saturday…

My soul, now in silence, waits. . .
As the earth joins in with a palpable anticipation.
ALL of Creation shutters in the deafening stillness.
Man hangs in the balance between the living and the dead
As both Life and Death vie for final control of all humankind

A tug and war ensues for each and every soul…
those that were, those which are and those who are yet to be.
Yet it is only the keen of heart who take notice.
The majority of mankind races off in the opposite direction, lost and unaware.

The ground groans deep within as tiny ripples race across the surface of time
A battle fiercely rages out of site from all of humanity,
as man sits on the precipice of eternity.
We wait, watching, listening, wondering
Our fate is sealed, yet the question remains. .
what will that fate be…

Eight years have passed since I wrote that post.
Life has both ebbed and flowed with the waves of
all that is good, beautiful and joyful along with all that is
bad, ugly and sorrowful…

Yet man’s same tug of war remains.

The ground continues to groan.
A battle still rages and man continues to sit upon a precipice of eternity…

But one single truth remains…

Redemption comes…

How do I know…

Well, I just know…

I know…
It came
I know…
It comes

and…I know it will continue to come…

It will come each and every year while we wait, watch, listen and wonder
We do so with grand anticipation…

And today reminds each of us of that simple truth..
Redemption comes…

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Ephesians 1:7

regardless

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding,
disbelief or ignorance.
W. Clement Stone

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless
of the temperature of the heart.
Corrie Ten Boom

(tulips abound / Julie Cook / 2023)

Despite today’s current very cold dreary rain, Spring continues to come regardless…
Despite the dire hurdles we face as mortal Christians, Christ comes regardless!!
Alleluia…

Christ God, awe-inspiring name, vision of majesty,
inscrutable image of sublimity, infinite force,
model of the light of salvation, defender of life,
gate to the kingdom of heavenly rest,
path of tranquility,
refuge of renewal that ends sadness,
almighty sovereign of all being,
call to blessing,
voice of good news,
proclamation of bliss,
salve of immortality,
indescribable son of the one and only God.
What is impossible for me is easy for you.
What is beyond my reach was put there by you.
What is inaccessible for me is close to you.
What is hidden from me in my fallen state
is within view for your beatitude.
What is impossible for me is done by you.
What is incalculable for me is already tallied by you, who are beyond telling.
What is despair for me is consoling for you.
What is incurable for me is harmless for you.
What is sighing for me is rejoicing for you.
What is heavy for me is light for you.
What effaces me is written for your power.
What is lost for me is conquered for you.
What is inexpressible for me is comprehensible for you.
What is gloom for me is radiance for you.
What is infinite for me you hold in the palm of your blessed hand.
What is somber for me is refreshing for you.
What sets me to flight, you withstand.
What holds me in check, you handily turn back.
What is fatal for me is nothing before your
almighty essence.

St. Grigor Narekatsi
Prayer 57 A
from the book:
Speaking with God from the Depths of the Heart

no politic

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress.
But I repeat myself.”
Mark Twain

“I predict future happiness for Americans,
if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people
under the pretense of taking care of them.”
Thomas Jefferson

(a street sign seen in the middle of nowhere/ Julie Cook / 2023

Driving on a rural road, somewhere between here and there, I spied this road sign…
“No Politic”

Not:
No Politician
No Politicians
No Politics
No Polity
No Political
No Poli-Sci
No Realpolitik
No Political Power
No Power
No Government
No Political Theory

but rather it’s pretty plain and simple… “No Politic”

Oh how the bombardment to our senses would be so vastly different if we
all opted for No Politic.

Not anarchical nor lawless but merely a deference of the politic.
Eschewing from the divisiveness hidden under the umbrella of what we
all know from today’s notion of politics.

Different, quiet, more clear and dare I say, more happy…
all without the current muck and mire of false narratives, the one sided narratives,
the divisions, the resentments, the lies, the schemes, the shenanigans, the constant
stirring of every proverbial existing pot…

All if we each opted for No Politic!!!

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving
be made for all people——for kings and all those in authority,
that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
1 Timothy 2:1-2

thoughts on the discoveries found along our individual paths

“It is a lesson we all need—to let alone the things that do not concern us.
He has other ways for others to follow Him; all do not go by the same path.
It is for each of us to learn the path by which He requires us to follow Him,
and to follow Him in that path.”
St. Katharine Drexel

(Spring keeps on trying/ Julie Cook/ 2023)

The Lord discovered to me a sense of my unbelief that, though late,
I should remember my transgressions and that I should be converted
with my whole heart to the Lord my God.
St. Patrick

“Undertake courageously great tasks for God’s glory,
to the extent that he’ll give you power and grace for this purpose.
Even though you can do nothing on your own, you can do all things in him.
His help will never fail you if you have confidence in his goodness.
Place your entire physical and spiritual welfare in his hands.
Abandon to the fatherly concern of his divine providence every care
for your health, reputation, property, and business;
for those near to you; for your past sins;
for your soul’s progress in virtue and love of him;
for your life, death, and especially your salvation and eternity—in a word,
all your cares.
Rest in the assurance that in his pure goodness,
he’ll watch with particular tenderness over all your responsibilities and cares,
arranging all things for the greatest good.”
St. John Eudes