Help
Is at Hand
Once
upon a time there was a cat named Larry who found himself snowbound
on a high mountain range. Larry, our tom cat, had been dismissed from
his position as a special emissary to a Queen in a distant land.
Apparently he had succumbed to some type of forbidden temptation and
was sent here as punishment for those misdeeds.
One
day, while Larry was trudging through the snow, he came upon a
kitten. Too tiny to be alone it seemed, but she appeared to be
abandoned nevertheless. The kitten mewed and mewed, then cuddled up
to Larry as soon as he came near.
Now
Larry knew nothing about kittens. He had been a favored cat at his
Queen’s court and never had to look after anyone but himself. So
here he was with a kitten on his hands and no understanding of how to
deal with it. “Surely there must be another cat lurking about,”
he wondered, while twisting his head from one direction to another to
see if he could spot one. But there were no other cats to be found.
So Larry allowed the kitten to climb on his back and travel with him
as he continued his wanderings in this snow-covered mountainside.
Up
ahead appeared a cave and Larry quickly made his way for it. “Here
they would be safe and out of harms way,” he thought. For it was
bitterly cold out this day and winds were mounting. “So any good
shelter would be a welcome relief,” he said to himself.
Once
inside the cave, the kitten climbed down from Larry’s back and
began to explore. It was quite dark in the cave, except for a faint
light that drifted in from the entrance. Outside their newfound lair
the winds were howling and snow was blowing all about. Inside, there
was a flickering of the light as this outer effect of blowing snow
seemed to dance as a cluster of shadows upon the cave’s walls.
Larry7
was tired and lay down for a rest. The kitten he hoped would do the
same. Upon awakening, some few hours later, Larry discovered that
the kitten was nowhere in sight. It had wandered off it seemed, to
venture deeper into the cave, looking for excitement as small
creatures were want to do.
The
kitten, apparently, was following a mosquito that had caught its
attention and deeper into the cave they both went. This mosquito, for
its part, had been awakened from its Winter sleep by the presence of
these two intruders. This mosquito had never seen cats before, but
did not concern itself with this as it had its own worked to do and
that took place deeper inside the cave.
Now
Larry, our tom cat, was somewhat concerned about his new friend, the
kitten. So he began mewing as adult cats would do to try and get the
kitten’s attention. The kitten, for her part, was totally
distracted by the buzzing mosquito who was heading deeper and deeper
into the cave. At some point the mosquito stopped to rest and the
kitten began playing about in that area.
When
the kitten heard Larry mewing, she began to mew herself and tried to
find her way towards the sound she now heard. Larry, by this time,
had become quite frantic. “What if this kitten lost here way and
was in danger,” he wondered? “That would be such a tragedy.”
He hoped he would locate her soon. In the meantime the mosquito
picked up the pace and began heading further into the cave toward a
purpose that only the insect could understand.
Eventually,
the kitten found her way back to Larry after many mewing calls and
responses on both their parts. The two greeted each other and licked
each other’s faces in a typical style one would see with long lost
friends. Larry wanted to know where the kitten had been and she then
tried to explain. She had followed the path the mosquito had set
which took them both deeper into the heart of the cave. It was only
when she heard Larry’s calls did she think to turn around and head
back.
“But why follow a mosquito?”
Larry asked.
“I don’t know,” the kitten
replied. “I had just never seen one before.”
“Oh, and will you follow anything
that you’ve never seen before?” Larry asked somewhat sternly.
“I don’t know,” the kitten
replied again. “Such things are all new to me. I’ve never had
any experiences such as this. When my mother left I thought she
would return soon. But she never came back for me. When you showed
up, I followed you. And when the mosquito came by, I took to
following him. I seem to be trying to find my way.”
“I see,” Larry reflected. “You
are lost and confused. You are looking for direction and you will
follow anything or anyone that is put in front of you.”
“It seems so,” the kitten
replied.
“But what if you were to get lost
and die?” Larry shot back, somewhat exasperated.
“How can that happen?” the
kitten asked.
“If you follow anything or anyone
without concern for your own needs, you will surely get lost.
Because their path can never be yours. You must at least follow your
own kind, other cats to be precise, in order to learn how to be that
type of creature. That is why cats follow cats and only mosquitoes
follow mosquitoes.”
“But then, how do I know which is
right for me?” the kitten asked.
“Well my little friend, you are a
cat. Of that there is no doubt. And as a cat you need to understand
cat life. Given that, only cats will be your best instructors.”
“And what about mosquitoes?”
kitten repeated.
“Mosquitoes have nothing to teach
you except what they know,” Larry explained. “And I repeat, they
are not cats!”
“So I must remain with cats only?”
kitten interjected, trying hard now to understand what was being
shared.
“Not necessarily,” was the
reply. “In the beginning, when you are young, older cats will
teach you about you. But when you get older, then you will begin
teaching you about you.”
“How will I do that?” Kitten
wanted to know.
“By listening to that voice inside
your heart that tells you where you might go and how you should
behave.” Larry answered.
“And that voice is me,” kitten
asked excitedly?
“That voice is you,” was the
reply.
“Why can’t I hear it right now,”
kitten asked?
“Because you are new to this place
and you have much to learn from those around you. But at some point,
when all that basic learning is done, your own inner voice will begin
to emerge and take you further along your way.”
“I am eager to hear that voice,”
kitten asserted. “Is that how you operate?”
“Well yes,” Larry answered. “Now
that I think of it, I do listen to my inner voice.”
“So that is how you found me,”
kitten interjected.
“Well yes,” Larry hesitated,
feeling somewhat puzzled now himself. He was realizing that he had
been describing his own process to the kitten, a process he too was
learning as he lived it. “Odd,” he thought. “I’d never
thought of this before.”
“That’s because you were
afraid,” said the kitten. “And before that you were lost in a
land of spoiled and selfish beings.”
“How is that,” Larry
interjected, now the one who was looking for answers?
And kitten replied: “While you
were at the Queen’s court you had nothing to learn because all was
done for you. When you were kicked out of that privileged lifestyle
you had to start fending for yourself. And when you found me you felt
obliged to care for another.”
“And when I cam along,” the
mosquito interrupted, “you had to find that lost part of yourself
that had once again gone wandering.”
“You mean the two of you have been
teaching me,” Larry reflected, feeling quite surprised. “And not
the other way around?”
“That’s correct,” the kitten
and mosquito said in unison. “You, sir Larry, were the one that was
lost and we were the ones sent in to help you find you.”
“Then you are both parts of me,”
Larry asserted?
“That is correct,” the two
protagonists replied.
Now
it was Larry’s turn to be stunned. He thought he was helping the
kitten when all along it had been the reverse. “And that pesky
mosquito had been part of the process as well,” he surmised.
“Well,” he continued, “I will listen to myself more often.
This life can certainly be quite and adventure.”
The
kitten and the mosquito had disappeared at this point. They were only
bit players in Larry’s grand adventure. This was all about finding
himself he realized. “Isn’t that strange,” he thought, “how
sometimes you don’t even know that it is you who are lost when you
are out trying to help someone else.” And with that realization
Larry felt pleased. His life had meaning and purpose after all, and
he was likely to find it in the oddest of places with many surprises
still ahead.
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