An Unlikely Teacher

Explore your sovereignty. It’s your key to sanity.

Let’s talk about what it is to be sovereign. But first…

We recently rescued a kitten; Daisy. And by now she’s not so much a kitten. I’ve watched her develop and grow and play and scratch and sleep and snuggle and how she’s such medicine for everyone in our house – including my seemingly so tough and gruff partner (who’s really just a marshmallow inside).

I’d been feeling the pull towards cats for a while. And this is coming from a girl who grew up in the country where our cats were ‘outside only’ ones and my mother was a ‘seemingly’ cat hater (I’ve since learnt she’s not. She loves Daisy and Daisy loves her). This strange but strong pull was difficult to ignore. I’d see cats on TV, someone on a podcast would talk about their cat and I’d find myself entranced by watching cheetah videos on YouTube for half an hour at a time.

And when I get an intuitive pull that strong – I’ve learnt it wise to listen. 

Cue – Daisy. Our sweet little fluff ball rescued and totally loved by our fam.

But what’s all this got to do with sovereignty? And what the hell is that anyway?

To be sovereign is to be regal; to be in one’s power and unaffected by others opinions, attitudes and ways. To be sovereign is to have clear and impenetrable boundaries, feeling no need to explain themselves to anyone.

Sovereignty feels like the most solid structure of one’s self one can be.

To be sovereign is to be saved from the insanity of comparison.

And cats are sovereign. They come to you as they wish and on their own terms. They sleep when they’re tired. They play when they’re frisky and they hide when they want to be alone. Their cycles are so decisive and direct. Whatever they are – they are in it.

Daisy is medicine. For all of us.

For Alice, she’s learning boundaries – when to pick her up and when not to. The latter usually resulting in a scratch or two. She’s also learning to be gentle. Slowly.

For Louis, the 13 year old in our household, he’s learning to be ok with his tenderness. A tenderness that can often be forgotten as he develops into his teens. He’s also learning how to be ok with Daisy’s boundaries and the times she wishes to be left alone. Neediness is teacher.

For Andrew…well he’s home the most out of all of us, especially in the off season of football. I’ll get pics while I’m at work of he and Daisy snuggled up on the couch snoozing. For a human than needs a lot of affection, Daisy gives it to him by the bucket load.

Above all, Daisy is teaching me about sovereignty. To be what I am – angry, sad, joyful, playful, sleepy, frisky, shy…whatever I am, just be it. She’s a reminder of boundaries and how I can so easily get swept into other people’s needs and wants.

And so I continue to learn from her. I watch her slink around choosing where she places herself and try not to be offended when she doesn’t come to me (medicine) I watch her play with such fire in her heart, a reminder of the ancient wildness within. And for all the cat lovers out there…you’ll appreciate that at 5.30am when no one else in the house is awake and I’m up doing rituals, I take great pride in making her purr but scratching her under the chin xx