Dear Cat:

I hope that as I type this you are already out and about (what you referred to as the second reality). These two realities: staying in bed vs going out reminds me of our neighbors’ dogs. You may be a cat person (your user name) but I hope giving you a canine example is okay with you…

One of the neighbors’ beagles is an outgoing, loving, reaching out, going out and about beagle, that is Hunter. He wakes up early, goes out rain or shine and explores the unknown. Same areas mind you, but for him it is the unknown, every morning anew. He explores on and off I suppose, until nighttime. When we open the door for him after his request to come in, he wags his tail, very loving.

Toby is the other beagle belonging to the neighbors. He never asks to come in, not even close. He doesn’t explore, but stays home all day. He doesn’t wag its tail at people he doesn’t know well. He barks instead.

For Hunter the world is exciting and inviting. For Toby the world is scary and uninviting. Toby had a traumatic puppyhood. Unlike Toby, we people have the option to overcome a traumatic childhood through a long process of healing so that we can heal that motivation to explore, so that we will be motivated to go out and about and discover the world, every morning anew.

Until such a time that you feel the motivation, you can do what animals cannot do, will yourself into doing what you don’t feel like doing, talk yourself into it, just as you already do sometimes.

anita