if this is you…

If tonight after yoga, as you were supine on the floor in corpse pose, you remembered something long forgotten. An embrace. A special hug in your dorm room way back in 1990. An ordinary hug, perhaps, but with an extraordinary significance. As you wrapped your arms around your new beau, you closed your eyes and immersed yourself completely. Time stopped, as every cell in your body memorized the orientation of its organelles right then. For that very hug. And you remembered that for the two years after that embrace, when you were missing your beloved so desperately and almost gave up thinking that two years was just TOO LONG, the universe reversed and you were there once again, holding him in your arms.

And if this is you, you will know that when you said good-bye to CatGirl this morning–as she headed off for a week of mountain adventure–you memorized your parting hug in that very same way. Burying your nose in the crown of her french-braided hair. Knowing that that one hug would need to hold you for several days. And resisting the urge to swoop her up on your lap and sing her a lullabye and tell her that she is just too young, too young to go. And at the same time, bursting with pride at this strong creature with the grace of an egyptian goddess-cat, the strength of a lioness, the mental acuity of her(now lonely and forlorn) TobyJoy, and an empathy large enough to embrace the entire animal kingdom.