Molly B.
has been throwing MAD HISSY fits as of late.

She\’s super puffed out to the extreme
and using the full force of her fluffy power.

Here\’s her fight stance:

Molly BING is certainly a force to be reckoned. When it comes down to it, she\’s a big SOFTY – wears it on her shoulder, actually (forms a kind of mane…). She is aloof in her administration of our home, commanding attention the same way Venus attracts and elicits response. Molly enters and settles down just out of reach, looking smug and way too good to trifle with anyone. Little Miss Priss knows that all we want to do is get a hand-FULL of fluff!

As Caroline Casey puts it: \”The universe is a Mars-Venus dance… Whenever [Mars] is in the grip of pompus bravado, [Venus] enters the room. He cannot help but bow to her, and his crown tumbles off his head. Mars and Venus remind us that there is a play and counter-force to every energy.\”

For Molly Bing, things are changing. The precious feline fluff-ball\’s territory has been compromised by Mars, and her puff has gone aggressive! Just when I thought the cat could not get any more POOF-ed, she does! Molly walks up to me now with an air of expectation and looks at me needing a back rub – no, excuse me – demanding it! She is so very put out and jealous at our new housemate who has gobbled up my attention this past week. It\’s kind of hilarious, because she tries not to seem desperate, but I can tell she\’s at the end of her rope. I give her a quick stroke on my way down the stairs, but it\’s not enough; she gets all grabby on me with claws and teeth!

Let me explain. When I invited Playful into my life, I had no idea it would come in puppy form! My brother adopted Kali, a pretty girl pup of four months. Since he works and I\’m a bum, I have become her puppy sitter! Like a baby, Kali takes a lot of time and energy. It has been quite an adjustment for the family, since we have never had a dog in the house before and we are used to this place being run by our feline friends.

Despite the change, everyone is falling for her (with the exception of Queen Molly Bing). Mom says, \”I thought all dogs were just slobbering idiots …but I like her; she has her own personality!\” Dad was so excited about the puppy that he immediately ran upstairs and grabbed old man Taylor cat so he could introduce him our new friend! (Actually… now that I think about it… maybe he had other motives…)

I relish the sound of Kali romping up the stairs to careen herself into bed with us when bro has gone. Surprisingly, Molly stays at the foot of the bed (her throne) when the pup comes bolting in to join. Sometimes there is a bit of hissing and tension, but we usually nap a couple hours together. It\’s a crowded scene! I just wish that Taylor hadn\’t bailed; we would be, like, ten times more cozy!

Molly B. certainly does stand her ground. She is a no nonsense kind of cat. Kali jumps around, begging the cat to play along, then hunkers down whimpering when Molly shoots super intimidating laser stares her way. Molly is never impressed. This is not funny. She conditions the pup to be fearful by blocking off roadways (entrances & stairs) with her puff, stare and swat. The other day Molly blocked off the hall, effectively trapping Kali upstairs – got the pup so agitated that it scared the shit out of our her, literally!

We patiently watch this Mars/Venus dance, hoping that they find common ground soon! If anyone has helpful tips – please do comment below! Until then, we\’ve just got to laugh …and do a lot of cleaning up.

\”Mars and Venus have a secret love affair,\” claims Caroline Casey in Making the Gods Work For You. She explains: \”In a wonderfully complex novel, The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, Doris Lessing delineates the necessity of the Venus and Mars relationship. The Empress of Zone Three is very Venusian. In her realm, everything is lovely and harmonious – vegetarian, precious, and tasteful – with New Age music wafting everywhere. She receives word from the guardians of the universe that she must descend to Zone Four and marry the Klingon-like, meat-eating, crude, vulgar Emporer, who is unadulterated Mars. The encounter is profoundly and usefully disturbing to both the character and the reader… The novel expresses the view that relationships are not necessarily for mere ego happiness. Actually their function is to contribute something necessary to the evolution of the universe. Good relationships are good for the world, and are therefore an arena in which antagonisms are worked out.

In Lessings fable, the Mars zone had become too crude and primitive. Divorced from Venus, with no ideals and nothing to protect, Mars had simply degraded into belching and brawling. Similarly, the Venus zone had become effete and too cute, pretty, lacking the fierceness of beauty. Both realms had become undynamic. They had to meet in an appropriate dance of antagonism so that the universe could evolve.\”

This period of Mercury\’s RE:versed course in the sky (Jan 11 – 31)

has RE:ally wRE:aked havoc!

*The hose on my car\’s transmission blew forcing us to flush the system, RE:fill with fluid, RE:place and RE:install a new hose.
*Our washing machine was RE:quiring constant RE:boot. The RE:pair man found that the motor had blown and RE:commended a new one.

2ND TO LAST DAY:

*The transmission in dad\’s car stopped working and after having it towed we found out that the plastic battery covering had come loose, pRE:venting the car from shifting gears!

THE LAST DAY:

*Our friendly neighbor\’s brakes blew. Her dad had to RE:install new.
*Another neighbor\’s puppy had to be RE:homed, since that neighbor was to RE:turning to RE:formatory.
*I RE:configured tables at my photo job because the managers disliked our original setup.
*I RE:quested a salad from two diffeRE:nt servers because the first was uncooperative.
*My brother\’s RE:homed puppy RE:gurgitated on me!

*And the grand finale was when my friendly neighbor\’s hot water heater pipe blew, filling her house with smoke & steam, which demanded an additional RE:pair from her dad the next day! What a week! What a month!

AND NOW

I am so RE:lieved that we are RE:leased from this holding pattern! Anyone else find that they had a lot of RE:viewing and RE:doing this past month? Tell me about it (comment below)!

Since the flow is on the go: what a shift! I had an awesomely mystical dream to RE:initiate movement forward from that Mercurial mess (while it was RE:tro I couldn\’t remember a thing from nighttime slumbers)! I have noticed an opening, especially in my breath. There is less anxiety and tension in my body and I am more able to take a deep breath, create space and relax! Awesome! Plus, my neighbor returned one of my sweatshirts that had been missing! And the pup stopped throwing up! She is acclimating awesomely to her new home. She helped the delivery people bring in our new washer (by prancing in their path) and after some tug of war with the soiled blankets I was loading, she lay next to me in front of the fire for a nap. Shew!

\”The answer came to me. Wait as long as you need to. The waiting is as important as the doing. It\’s the time you spend training and the rest in between; its painting the subject and the space in between; its the written words, what is said, what is left unsaid, the space between the thoughts on the page, that makes the story, and its the space between the notes, the intervals between fast and slow, that makes the music. It\’s the love of being together, the spacing, the tension of being apart, that brings you back together. Just wait, he will return.

I\’ve got to do something, I told myself, but I didn\’t know what. Just waiting there and watching… wasn\’t accomplishing anything, but swimming around in circles wasn\’t accomplishing much either. Maybe if I think very hard [he] will hear me. Maybe [he] won\’t know my words, but will sense my brain waves. Maybe [he] will hear my feelings with [his] sonar. Maybe [he] will hear me calling [him] through the water… Please, come this way, over here! I shouted with my mind…

I thought as hard as I could. I didn\’t know if it would work. I didn\’t know if anyone could ever know. But I had to try something. You don\’t have to hear the words to know someone cares about you. You don\’t need to hear the words to know someone believes in you. You don\’t need to hear the words to know someone loves you. You feel it; you know it.

I projected my thoughts: be patient. Wait. Nothing is all good or all bad. As a problem develops, so does the solution. Rest here. I will tread water beside you. You will be okay. I know it. I feel it. It will all work out.\”

This is an excerpt from the book Grayson, by Lynne Cox that I just finished. I think her story is a beautiful metaphor for trusting what you feel and intuiting your way through. In Neptune\’s sea (that engulfs our consciousness) there are many ways of communicating and connecting. (Water is our spiritual conductor!) Her words are so simple, and yet so profound. She speaks of her experience helping a baby grey whale find its mother, but reveals the power of magic!

I got a sense for riding – a feeling – that I should maintain a grip firm, but flexible. And I learned to lean in or over or back, using my body weight to maneuver. Other times I felt light, like I weighed nothing at all! Sometimes I let go of concentrating on the trail and felt like I could fly right off the bike and into the air! We flowed with the trails on and onward until we got dizzy from flying around trees in the blue glow. How surreal! Great practice!