My Cat Can Help Your Writing

I have a cat. Her name is Azriel. Probably fifty percent of the time when she's sleeping she wants to be under a blanket. If I'm in the bed, she's under the covers sleeping between my knees. If I'm on the couch she's either under the covers on my lap or under the blanket on the cushion next to me using my leg as a pillow. It is very cute and I'm not even one of those "puppies and kitties and baby owls are cute" kind of girls. She's also the softest cat in the universe, but that's another story that involves rabbit jealousy and resentment.


Here's the part that pertains to you "the writer." Every time Azriel, or Azzy for short, or AZ when we go clubbing, wants to come snuggle under blankets she jumps up onto the blanket. She picks at the covers with her paw, pulling small bits with her claw to dig at it, and meows at me. See, she doesn't want to get herself under the covers, she wants me to lift the blanket so she can crawl into the cave under the covers.

So, being the pet parent that I am, I see her picking, clawing, and hear those gritty meows and I lift the blanket up to make an entrance to the cave. Nine times out of ten Azzy is standing on the blanket, making it difficult to lift and forcing the "cave" of warmth to look smaller than it is. If she gets a clue and steps the first half of her body into the dark hole in front of her, suddenly, because she moved off the blanket, the area she wants to be in magically increases. As she moves her back end off the blanket to go under, the cave multiplies and amazingly the space of safety is just the right size for her to crawl into and lay down for a four hour nap.

Isn't it funny how this stupid cat story with her stupid blanket is just like your writing life? The very thing you want so desperately to get to is trapped under the weight of your own self and you're the reason the entrance to your goals looks so damn small and impossible to achieve. Deep right? We all know we want to be in that blanket of published writer. We want to get under there and feel warm and safe and spend the rest of our lives under those covers.

Somehow we fail to realize how much we are standing in our own way, whether it's excuses about not having time to write, or thinking you need someone else to help hold you accountable. There isn't always going to be someone there to lift the entrance to your future, so all the picking and clawing and crying isn't going to get you anywhere. For today, I challenge you to step out of your own way and get off of your writing goals because you're squishing them and there's no way you're going to get in there unless you move.