Adrenaline April is already here. Seems like it comes sooner every year, since it is still March. As soon as the frost goes out, we hit the ground running and forget to eat, shower, shave, or sleep until “Sometime After Horse Drive.”
In the middle of my daily dose of mayhem, the fuzzy grey ranch cat “DeCon” slipped through the office door and landed in my lap. So did the realization that beginning in April, and lapsing through most of the year, I communicate in a daze of half attention. She sat in my lap, as I tried to type over her demanding paws, answer the telephone, and talk to someone standing in the door…doing four things half-assed, instead of granting my full attention to any one.
In a moment of weakness, I pushed the chair back from two computer screens and pet the cat, committing fully to the moment. I told her, “You are very lucky that I own you. You have an ‘in’ with the boss here and because you are family, I always have time for you.” In my mind (because I am a hopeless film fanatic), I ran through various scenes of corporate high-rise office mucky-mucks taking time to hear about their little daughter’s day at school while in the midst of multi-billion dollar deals. It felt really, really good.
Not that my life is anything like that. And yes, I realize the above admission labels me a certifiable nut job.
It occurred to me that I rarely grant the same level of attention, respect and caring to my guests, family, friends, and clients as I had just given the cat. I engage people and tasks in a preoccupied manner, even in the midst of the Horse Drive, because I am too busy thinking about planning and organizing the moment to actually live the moment.
2011 April Adrenaline? Bring it on. My cat just taught me how to handle it. I vow to commit fully to the moment, give it my full attention, and maybe for the first time ever, REVEL IN THE RUSH AT HAND.
Carpe diem, quad minimum credula postreo. (Seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the future.) I think I’ll name my next cat Horace.
Goes to show you what a shaggy little cat can tell you, she only gives her attention at special times, as she is too busy doing her job at the tack shop.