Other Inspirations

Along with all the other interesting things I’m trying to accomplish this year—build my e-commerce site, create more art, make more stuff, go to more shows, rebuild my garden—I’ve also been trying to write a weekly something for my writing site, PathsIHaveWalked.com. So far I’ve written two honestly new things, and a few updates of older things.

Years ago I set out to be a writer, and I like the path I’ve followed when my original idea didn’t work out. In many ways it’s so much richer than anything I would have chosen. But I still want to write in addition to all the art and photos. I love all the things I’ve written, am writing and will write for The Creative Cat, but I also have many other things I’ve wanted to say for years, essays that go back to the years I took care of each of my parents, my brother, older relatives, the short stories I’ve drafted and not finished, poems, they all need to go somewhere.

So for all the other things that have been getting in the way of me posting here, there is this Sunday essay thing too. It’s okay, it will all work out.

Today I added more photos to my Feline Photo Gallery on my website, did some work on making new stuff, and I also revived a poem and wrote an essay that came to mind a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been intending to write this since then. The weather is turning to spring and I’m considering gardening things and remembering Kublai, Moses, Cookie and especially those years when I had both Cookie and Namir supervising me in the garden.

Looking at the photos of them outside with me I can’t believe how lucky I was that the two of them were so wonderful about staying with me, staying in the yard when one whole side was not fenced, and no leashes after about a month for Namir, no complaining when we had to go back in. I remember looking at them and thinking they must really like to be with me and it was one of the best feelings I’ve ever known.

Both of them were with me on a day when I took a series of photos called “Winter Leftovers”, delicate poignant images that have stayed with me of the dry and spent native plants in my garden from the year before, and the understated beauty of what was left. They struck me differently from “The Light in the Darkness” though it’s the same idea, the strength that’s left behind when the obvious beauty is washed away by weather and time, and what is left is unique and more beautiful than what was expected.

In this case it was finding the tiny spider in the nearly transparent web and knowing that with her last strength she built that web and the children she would never know would use that web to start their new life, which inspired a poem a few years ago.

Then just recently remembering those photos and wanting to share them again, I found there was much more to that day than I remembered, though all I remember is the poignant delicacy and inspiration of those dry plants sharing the last of their beauty.

And Cookie and Namir were with me that day too. I remember keeping one eye on them while I was working in the garden and again while I was absorbed in photographing, and stepping around and over them while they checked in with what I was doing. The year was 2009, and Namir would only be with us for three months more. Sometimes it feels like they were out there with me all the years I’ve lived here when for both of them together it was only three years. But they are always there, even now with Mimi. And here they are in a few extra photos from that day I’ve never used, I was so preoccupied with the photos of weeds.

And here are the two items on my writing blog. I have them set up as blog posts but each is also available in the permanent pages as an essay and a poem. Even though I only briefly mention Cookie and Namir, they are strongly with me every time I remember that day.

Poem: To Come Again in Spring

Essay: What Stays With Us

Read other Essays on The Creative Cat.

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© 2017 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!

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