Gloomy Ocean, Green-Eyed Cat

While Kirk retrieved our dog and cat from his sister's house in Corpus Christi, I found myself sequestered once again. This time at a quaint bungalow on Fulton Beach near Rockport.

Waiting for Kirk, I read The Secret. A book of wisdom on creating what you want, instead of what you don't want, in life. I had come to Rockport hoping to feel the sun on my face, the ocean on my feet. Instead, I felt the cold and watched the rain.

But I grasped what the book was telling me. That in order to create what you want in life, you've got to stop focusing on what you don't want.

Twice a cat with green eyes visited me. The first time I had come to a point in The Secret where I was asked to verbalize the good I wanted. I started this. Then the howls of the green-eyed cat drew me to the back door. I opened it. He came in. This bungalow was clearly his bungalow. He skipped immediately to the bathroom and jumped up into the sink. He made me laugh. Eventually, I put him back out.

The second visit came at another pivotal moment. An exercise I was doing from the book inspired me to focus on something that would lift my spirits. So I closed my eyes and imagined the future. I have long hair flowing behind me as I ride with my arms wrapped around Kirk's middle on his motorcycle. We are riding through the hill country along the Devil's Backbone near Austin. Our land we've just purchased is near. Our pop-up camper sits on it. We are just beginning to build a home we've dreamed of building.

Then: a jump and scratch like a large dog comes from the back door. I go there thinking I'll see a Great Dane looking up at me. But it is, once again, the green-eyed cat. This time I decide not to let him in. Still, he goes to every window and howls to me, his green eyes staring me down. He makes me laugh once again.

I am here in Houston now. But did not remember, until I saw the gloomy photo I had taken of the ocean, the visits from the green-eyed cat who punctuated with laughter the exercises from The Secret that gave me joy.

Maybe there's something to this thing The Secret describes.