Finding Joy

Spring is almost here! The end of the pandemic finally feels like an actual light at the end of this horrible tunnel...

And overwhelming joy still hasn't burst through our lives.

Like heading to your favorite restaurant for dinner only to find out they've been closed by the Health Department, the disappointment is overwhelming.

After a horrifying year that will leave scars on the world long past our lifetimes, shouldn't we all feel artistically inspired, personally fulfilled, and ready to burst out of our pandemic cocoons ready to take on any challenge?

Not really. This year has been awful, not an extended at-home spa experience.

AND we haven't actually reached the end of the pandemic, even though we just passed the anniversary of the world stopping. In fact, the year mark sort of made it worse.

So I, in my non-licensed, quasi-eccentric way, came up with a brilliant plan to cure my still stuck in COVID spring blues.

I bought a stroller for my cats.

I am going to load the fur demons up and walk them through my neighborhood, dammit. They are going to see birds, and smell things, and we're going to have a great time, whether or not the fur beasts like it.

Why?

Because "normal" is still not back. "Normal" as we knew it may never come back. Waiting for an opportunity to step back into my old life isn't healthy.

So, if I'm going to be the writer who has to wear a sunhat in the cold because lupus sucks, then I'm going to be the blue-haired (no, literally blue), sun hat wearing, cat stroller pushing writer who is a neighborhood legend.

Parents will warn their children not to grow up to be like me. Children will secretly want to come see my cats basking in their stroller but will be too terrified of my coolness to dare.

When the world reopens, I will take my stroller cats to craft fairs and wineries. I will sit outside in a fully shaded area cooing to my cats while sipping the local wine. It's going to be great.

That will be my life, and I'm embracing it no matter who questions my mental health for buying a cat stroller.

Because going for walks with my cats will bring me joy. And if the shit show of 2020 taught us anything, it's to accept joy however we can, because all the little things we take for granted could be shut down at any time.

So, embrace this second pandemic spring. Buy a cat stroller. Find your joy, no matter who poopoos you.

No one knows what normal is anymore. Screw normal. It never did us any good anyway!

You burst out of your cocoon as whatever kind of eccentric butterfly you want.