Remember when you were a child, your parents gave you pennies for the fountain?
Remember the secrets you kept when you blew out the candles on your birthday cake?
Remember the lost eyelashes you swept from your mother’s finger?
What did you wish for?
When I was a child, I wanted my parents to be married to one another.
As an adult, I can’t even imagine why they got married.
When I was a child, I wanted a mother who’d be there when I got home.
As an adult, I value the education my mother paid for.
When I was a child, I wanted a pony and a pool and a big sister.
As an adult, all I see there is potential injury and drama.
When I was a child, I wanted to stay up late.
As an adult, I have frequent insomnia.
When I was a child, I wanted my parents to love me even though I was nothing like them.
As an adult, I am grateful I’m so much like them.
When I was a child, I wanted to keep every homeless cat or dog I saw.
I still do.
So on days where I wake up from a nap, surrounded by five animals — Cletus under my chin, Como on my back, Sadie to my side, Clara between my feet, and Catticus perched at the end of the bed, I realize that was one thing worth wishing for.
Child Me is delighted.
joeyfullystated 
You are the cat lady! This is such a lovely piece. It is interesting how our perception changes as we grow colder. I love your photo:)
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Hehe! Thanks!
Kimberly, do you see how you said we grow colder? Freudian slip or typo? 😉
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It was a friggin’ apple spell check. Yesterday it was as if every word was being changed right under my nose. It is like Big a Brother in my phone and pad. Yes I meant OLDER. But I do know in some ways, I feel a bit colder. But I did mean older. Why couldn’t apple choose bolder? :). xx
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I like your style! Bolder is definitely better! 😀
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This is so awesome! I love how there was one thing that your child self and you agree on, and that you have it in your life. I LOVE this piece. 🙂
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Thanks a lot, I sure liked writing this one 🙂
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Love this. Perfect start to my day. My petless day… (Hubs has bad allergies. 😦 )
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Thank you! Aw, yeah, that’s too bad. Got fish?
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No. They’re boring.
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heh, ok
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Thanks for the perspective check. My wife used to take in stray cats before we were married. She couldn’t keep them because she was in an apartment and she was allergic. A couple years later, I brought home a helpless stray and after a few days (maybe weeks, maybe years) of bap-you-in-the-face contact, her allergies waned. We adopted a 2nd cat and have never been without cats since. Never 5, but we’ve had as many as three (and an Irish Setter, always an Iris Setter). That’s a great picture 🙂
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Thanks, Dan. I am allergic to two of my cats, but so long as I keep my fingers out of my eyes after petting, I’m okay. 🙂
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Lovely post to start off my weekend. Thanks for sharing it with us!
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Thank you — I hope your weekend is luffly! 😀
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growth…it’s what makes civilization move forward and not backward…but seriously….that’s a lot of cats! I too want to take every stray in…sigh…I’m addicted to the FB stories of rescued dogs…
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Feel better, I am addicted to stories of rescued everything! lol
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Great reflections, wonderful reading and beautiful cats. I’m a cat person myself.
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Thanks 🙂
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That was wonderful. I had a terrible night’s sleep last night because the Diva chose to sleep right between my legs rather than between the GG and I. This meant that I had very little room in which to move. Of course I could have shoved her off the bed, but it was cold last night and she was comfortable…. lol
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I wished for my own room, and that my parents’ anger wouldn’t explode outward in my direction with such violent force. I wished for a house free of yelling, for school days free of torment…
My own children have rooms of their own, although one chooses to sleep on the living room couch. I’ve made great strides in learning how to defuse the force of my own anger before I lash out at others. Neither child has ever gone to school; they really have no understanding of the cruelty that can happen there.
In giving my children as much as I can of that life I wished for, long ago, I’ve somehow given it to my child self, too, in retrospect.
Oh, and there’s a dog, a cat, a guinea pig, a caterpillar and 8 tadpoles here…
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I want to rescue every abused animal and keep them safe in my small home. Someday, when I’m retired, I’ll rescue at least 5 of them. I look forward to it!
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Ha – Catticus.
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