Destiny

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Cat's Life

BY: Cate Adelman

Nothing else matters much -- not wealth, nor learning, nor even health -- without this gift: the spiritual capacity to keep zest in living. This is the creed of creeds, the final deposit and distillation of all important faiths: that you should be able to believe in life.
~Harry Emerson Fosdick

By that October I had been out of the convent for almost a year, and I was living alone in a tiny little house in a tiny little town. During the day I worked as a coordinator for people with disabilities. By night, I was simply a person searching, wondering who I was and who life was calling me to be. I could not remember how to have fun, how to relax, how to play or laugh. It was a quiet lonely time.

My friend Carol called me on a Monday. She said that she had a kitten she wanted me to meet. The little gray soul had followed her friend's family as they walked to church the day before, and had been waiting for them on the sidewalk when they came out afterward. They took the kitten home, only to find that their youngest son was acutely allergic. They gave him to Carol, but her cat was unhappy with the new houseguest, so she thought of me. I agreed that the kitten could come for a visit, but I insisted that it be only a short visit. I had had a childhood allergy to kittens, and I was unsure of my own life's direction. I asked myself how I could possibly take on the responsibility for another life when mine was in such turmoil.

Carol came for the short visit and brought the cutest kitten that I had ever seen. His round apple-shaped head was almost bigger than his fuzzy gray body, and his copper eyes danced like sunlight reflecting on a pool of water. He was only as big as a handful of grapes, and was playful, clean and healthy looking. I knew immediately that this was not some random stray kitten. I asked Carol to return to the church neighborhood to see if she could find the kitten's family, and in the meantime, I would think about adopting him. I called Carol a few days later to let her know that I had decided to give the little kitten a try. I figured that I didn't have anything to lose. When she answered the phone, I heard the hesitation in her voice. She had found the kitty's family that very afternoon, and had reluctantly left him in their care. I thanked her for thinking of me. Though I realized this kitten was not intended to be mine, I was sad at letting go of the possibilities he had awakened within me.

The next evening I was sitting alone in my tiny little house watching TV. Suddenly, my friend Paula arrived on my porch step with a little gray kitten in her hand. I gasped. Here was my little kitten again, brought back to me by a different friend. She asked me if I would be willing to adopt this little kitten, and seeing the shock on my face she quickly began to explain. She told me that she had just pulled up to the neighborhood convenience store when she was met by a young man holding a kitten who had just run out from the center of the busy intersection. He had been walking by and had seen a little gray kitten in the middle of the intersection, frozen in terror as the cars sped by him. The young man ran into the traffic and scooped up the kitten even though he had no idea what he was going to do with it. The first person he saw was Paula, and he asked her if she knew of anyone who might want a kitten. She said I immediately came to mind. I couldn't believe it. It was the same kitten that had been at my house a few days earlier. I knew in an instant that this was of much more than this earth. He had come to my house twice, and I did not need a third invitation. I said yes with my whole heart.

I named him Destiny, and quickly realized that he had already adopted me. He taught me again how to have fun, to relax, to play and to laugh. My quiet, empty home became one filled with love and chatter. There were no more empty lost moments. Destiny called me to the present moment again and again, and together we passed the next fifteen years as partners in mischief, delight and unconditional love. In the midst of it all, I found my new direction without seeking and struggling. The path was laid out before me simply by living life on its own terms and in the present. If ever again I begin to wonder if God is truly going to provide me with what I need to live and give life fully, I remember the miracle of Destiny, brought to me twice before I knew enough to say yes, bringing with him more gifts than I ever could have thought to seek.

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