Serafina

Serafina is our youngest cat, and the only other female in the house.  Every night, she plays a game with me.  She recognizes the signs that I am getting ready for bed:  I go into the bathroom, I take my pills, I check my alarm, and then I move the decorative pillows off the bed.  The next step will be to turn down the covers and crawl into bed.  Every night, she crouches on top of the covers with her back to me, pretending like she doesn’t see me getting ready for bed, and like she doesn’t know that I am going to cover her up with the comforter in just a few seconds.  Every night I cover her up – and then she just lies there, purring.   This cracks me up; neither of the other cats wants to be covered up at all, unless they are burrowing under something to hide.  Serafina seems to enjoy this little game – which is further enhanced when I take a few minutes to play with her under the covers.  She pounces on my hand or bats at my fingers, purring noisily the entire time.

During the night, she waits for me to get up to go into the bathroom.  Then she jumps on the bed, and curls up to “sleep” in the warm place I have just vacated.  She feigns indignation when I come back a minute later, and she loudly protests when I pick her up and move her, because, after all, that is MY BED, and I want to sleep. 

Maybe one of the reasons I enjoy these times with Serafina so much is because I have behaved just like her so many times.  I “know” what I am doing when I put food into my mouth, but I “pretend” that it is something else.  I “know” when my eating is out of control, but I “pretend” that everything is perfectly normal.  I “know” that the overeating causes so many health issues, but I “pretend” that I am truly OK.  Pretending is fine when you are a child, or a cat, and even sometimes as an adult.  But when the “pretend” becomes justification for things I am doing to my body, it’s not so good anymore.  I will keep playing the games with Serafina, but I refuse to play games with my health and my life anymore.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:10-12

(Sorry I didn’t post yesterday.)