🪷This cat needs a quiet place

a poem about people's differing needs

This cat needs a quiet place
to hide from noise in her own space.
She’ll purr and play when she feels safe.
Please, just let her be.

You bark and bounce, all boisterous,
waving flags of friendliness.
It’s beautiful—nevertheless,
we’re different, you and me.

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Commentary

This poem comes straight out of my life lately, as I continue to “unmask” and attune with my actual feelings rather than what I think others expect of me. It turns out, my feelings strongly favor quietness, privacy, and space to process and reflect. Thus, I stay much calmer and saner when I wear my headphones, make eye contact selectively, pause before responding to people, and accommodate myself in other such ways, which the people around me may not understand at first. I think the cat/dog metaphor is one helpful way to explain that when I’m reserved, it means that I’m taking care of myself and my nervous system, not that I don’t like the other person.

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Our black cat (Julius) is the quiet type. He has taken over this box that the kids used to make a pretend TV.

Here was the pretend TV on its first day of life, featuring various dog tails in between the kids’ pirate tales.

Here’s a summer photo of Julius, who doesn’t usually feature on this blog because he prefers quiet coziness to photogenic antics.

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In the Notebook

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