The Lady and the Cat
They say image is everything but this isn't what this is about. This is more about the fact that an image can stick with us long after it is removed from our eyes. The memory lingers in our mind.
That happened Yesterday before 10 am. It is not almost two the following day, but it's still burned in my mind. On my way in to do readings, I took a road I usually wouldn't take. It was a four-lane road, with two lanes on either side and a turn lane in the middle. The red brake lights illuminated, and the cars in front of me slowed down. None of this is unusual, really.
However, as traffic inched along and we changed lanes, I noticed a car in the opposite direction in the turn lane. Once again, that's normal; what wasn't was the woman outside her car in the turn lane for my side, kneeling with a gray cat. She was crying and petting the fallen feline. I don't know if she hit it or if someone else did, but she was kneeling with it and stroking it. I didn't know what to do.
The road had a curve, so I lost sight of them. I waited in the turn lane and saw the brake lights going off and people changing lanes. I imagine people were upset about this woman and cat, but why? Because they had to change lanes or slow down.
The truth is she was showing compassion to the poor cat. Whether she had struck the cat on accident or someone else had, she was there with the cat. There was compassion and kindness. Part of me wanted to turn around and go back, but I was late. Then I asked myself what I could do to help anyway. I had a blanket in the car, and we could've wrapped it, but then I heard sirens and figured a policeman might help her more than I could.
However, most of the day Yesterday and even today, I am left thinking about the woman and the cat. I remember the first time, and fortunately, the only time I hit a squirrel going to work and how it bothered me. What if it had been a cat instead of a squirrel? I might have been that very woman trying to figure out how to help or be with it.
Then, of course, it brought up the memory of my hubby collapsing in our car and me screaming for the people standing around to help, yet no one did. Sometimes, it's those moments we have to be with those feelings and emotions. To surrender to being powerless to help the fallen. I'll never know what happened to the lady or the cat. All I know is that image left an impression on me. Sometimes, the small things show us how sacred life truly is.
©2024 D.M. Needom