JUST CALL ME TIGGER

Pixel Blue Eyes “tagged” us to take part in a Quote Challenge. We are supposed to post our three favorite quotes. We kitties really don’t know anything about this kind of stuff so we are handing this off to Mom. Take it away Mom.

Thanks, Kitties Blue! This was a bit hard for me. I have two favorite quotes and then a whole slew of ones that do mean something to me when I see them.

The first quote is from a song originally published in 1808 in A Selection of Irish Melodies. It was written by Thomas Moore for his wife Elizabeth, who was badly scarred by smallpox.

Here is that song:

I.

BELIEVE me, if all those endearing young charms,

Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,

Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,

Like fairy-gifts, fading away!

Thou wouldst still be ador’d as this moment thou art,

Let thy loveliness fade as it will;

And, around the dear ruin, each wish of my heart

Would entwine itself verdantly still!

II.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy cheeks unprofan’d by a tear,

That the fervour and faith of a soul can be known,

To which time will but make thee more dear!

Oh! the heart, that has truly lov’d, never forgets,

But as truly loves on to the close;

As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets,

The same look which she turn’d when he rose!

The kitties’ dad and I used this song 42 years ago in our wedding vows, and the line highlighted was engraved in our original wedding bands. We have used the quote again. It is carved into our headstone. (Yes, we already have one. It never hurts to be prepared.)

My second quote is one of my own: “Cats are predictably unpredictable.”

Lily Olivia and Astrid (and on rare occasions Calista Jo and Lisbeth) sleep in the bowl on the kitchen counter. Mauricio DOES NOT…well, until yesterday. I could not have predicted this. You saw him yesterday and in a previous post on Fiona and Gulietta’s bed. Now here he is in the counter bowl. He was back in the bowl again when I headed upstairs last night to go to bed. Like Goldilocks looking for just the right bed, he seems to be on a quest to find one he likes best.

Identifying a third quote as a favorite was a challenge, so I am sharing two additional ones.

In the ’80s and ’90s, I worked at a local college. It was the early days of the internet and e-mail. Morale was quite low among the employees, and I started sending out an uplifting quote via e-mail each day. I selected the following quote one morning specifically for my co-worker and dear friend who was suffering from malignant melanoma. It became the quote she used on all her correspondence until her death.

“Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul/And sings the tune without the words/And never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

Just about any line from the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch could be on my favorite quote list, but I have selected this one to share with you.

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

This basically has been my mantra most of my adult life—long before Pausch’s last lecture. Being dealt a somewhat crummy hand by being born with a congenital and progressive neuro-muscular disease, I have always worked hard to make the most of the abilities I do possess. To use Pausch’s analogy (and that of some others), I am a Tigger, not an Eeyore.

Those are my quotes and why I selected them. Like most challenges, this one has some rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you: Thanks Pixel Blue Eyes for this opportunity to reveal a bit about myself through the quotes I selected.
• Post three of your favorite quotes (this can be done all in one post or on three consecutive days).
• Nominate 3 bloggers and challenge them.

I challenge Annie from McGuffy’s Reader, Melissa from Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries & Meows and Ellen from 15 and Meowing.

Wishing you all a Tigger-type of week.

 

 

Tags: Emily DickinsonGoldilocksLily OliviaMauricioQuote ChallengeRandy PauschTigger