That Ceiling Cat watches over the world is a good thing, but knowing that even she cannot shape our injustices sets the tone for a yin and yang as only pooties of the spiritual realm can belie. For certain, she cannot stop us mere hoomans from fucking up time and time again. So, what does 2015 bring with it? Here is what's in it for me, and what I need to make a go of it.
Last year I began working with the organizing committee at my synagogue. One should not be fooled into assuming these Jewish ladies, some of sunset years, merely sit around knitting and kvetching. No! This is a group of warriors taking on a fear that has all but paralyzed our congress. Basement Cat approves of innocent disguises.
This is the year my sweet kitty will cross the rainbow bridge, most likely by spring. How do I know this? Some weird cancer has been growing inside her since she took mine; the tumors surrounding her back hock suggest she won't be able to walk at some point soon. She was my healing cat, but now, because of the location and size of her tumors, I cannot heal her. Brigette's end of life catastrophe has provided me with the necessary insight to know when it is time to say goodbye. With Brigette's death comes my relief Sasha will have a gentle and loving passing. Until then, she gives us the gift of witnessing the end phase of the cycle of life with acceptance, and the compassion to say goodbye when she says it is time. Because Sasha came to me in the image of Basement Cat, Basement Cat approves of this gentle death.
Last January I began working for a small start up, non profit that provides insurance based, comprehensive mental health care to children, teens, young adults, and their families. If you've read some of my diaries about this work, you know I've struggled mightily with the issue of competence. While I've done some good work, I've done it atop a tight rope at least a mile high in the sky. Anxiety has ruined a number of therapeutic alliances and I own that. But there has been joy too: the eleven year old who confidently told me she didn't need me anymore; the fourteen year old who showed me her latest bracelet, "Wrists are for bracelets, not cutting;" the high powered executive mother who cut off her cheating boyfriend; and the family bonding together over Warriors games and go kart racing instead of the despair that illness brought with it. Still, increasing my work hours sucks because tight rope walking is exhausting, and well, anxiousness is anxiety provoking. Because we've taken a hit financially, thank you income inequality and union busting, I'll need to curtail some of the activities I love to do and which bring great satisfaction, because with increased hours, comes less time and attention to my daughter.
Here is the Ask
KTK needs some help. I am unable to continue to write weekly diaries given my new schedule. We've been so very fortunate to have our best friends and writers grace our table every week, and they've been writing every week for a year and a half with no complaints and barely a break. I am so grateful to everyone who stops by to share part of their evening whether it be for venting or contemplating the exotic rituals of our feathered friends.
The February schedule for KTK is open and needs hosts to tend each week. Wednesdays and Thursdays are most needed because these are days I am not available to fill in. When nomandates and I created the concept of conversations that could take place in a virtual kitchen among family members, we decided those conversations are what is most important in this forum. What this means is that the diarist need not write a masterpiece or satisfy their unrealistic expectations of perfection because we are all accepting here, and imperfection really is perfection. I've even challenged my own unrealistic requirements at times by allowing myself less time to dote on the details of word combinations and rhythms that tap out a melody only I can hear. So please consider taking a turn at writing for KTK, tending our reader's comments, fighting off trolls, and baring witness to the kindness and warmth those who visit us bring with them. Please send me a kosmail, or say in your comment that you are interested in signing up for a date or more, and then look for a kosmail from me.
A special thank you to our KTK diarists
side pocket
paradise50
belinda ridgewood
nomandates
bastrop
SaraR
Chrislove
BeninSC
Glen The Plumber
A special thank you to our guest hosts
The Marti
palantir
boatsie
rb137
WarrenS
MsSpentYouth
Mettle Fatigue
green bird
arizonablue
Deborah Levoy
liberated spaces
Thomasina
postmodernista
eeff
The Little One
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As an addendum, I understand that with the coming of DK5 we will no longer have a subject line which therefore negates the necessity to use the "nt™" in the text box. I want to give credit where credit is due for this meme has contributed much love and snark where ever it is embedded. {{{Glen}}}
However, Basement Cat turns her head in indifference.
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Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
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