Importance of Community

Drama today.  Our wonderfully sweet almost 1 year old kitten that we have co-raised since he was 2 minutes old was lost...He always hangs around and today, he was was just "not there"..All day..  I suspected he might be in a neighbor's garage and would be home around dinnertime as people came home from work, but at 7pm, still no cat..  I have two young children who are very attached to him...and I didn't want them to have the heartbreak of losing him like that.. I was imagining all sorts of terrible things..hit by car, stuck under something, trapped, hurt, kitty-napped..  Not such great images when you still think of him as the little 2 minute old kitten not quite a year ago... 

After dinner, our family of 4 approached our neighbors.  (I was just reading in Radical Homemaking..about the importance of community, and as a Baha'i we are encouraged to reach out to community especially our neighbors)...Well, here we were meeting neighbors, we had only "seen" in passing.  One woman lives right behind us..behind our backyard fence..Our backyards are only separated by a fence.  She is 99 years old. She invited us in and gave us a tour of her house.  It was like going back in time...a wonderful experience to get a snippet of a time long past..She was one of the sweetest people I have met in a long while.  She put her arm around me and talk to my children and told us stories of her life and showed us a picture of her deceased husband who had made crafts with veterans for his profession (or retirement)..  She looked at his picture lovingly..."he was a very good man"---  I hope my husband can say that about me (if I die first) and vice versa..  She was one of the oringinals of our neighborhood.. been living here 50 years..  I'm sure she has seen a lot in 99 years..  We invited her to go to breakfast with us tomorrow.  (It is a Holy Day for Baha'is, the 9th Day of Ridvan)  http://www.bahai.us/festival-of-ridvan  So, my husband is taking the day off work, and I am taking the kids out of school to commemorate the Holy Day--have a family day, and go to our community celebration. 

While we visited with her, the thought occurred to me that the reason that our cat is missing is so we can connect with our neighbors (especially this woman)...  (but I was hoping desperately our cat was okay)

when we got home, still no cat.  I was a mess...trying not to cry and be dramatic in front of the kids (especially since they were staying optimistic and calm about the whole thing)..  Then at 9:45PM, my husband looked out the front window and exclaimed, "there he is!"

I couldn't believe it..I was thinking for sure, he must be dead or lost or hurt, or stolen...  He was wet, but he was fine!!!  Relief..  I brought him into the kids room, (they weren't "quite asleep" and let them hold/pet him before feeding him) And now, I'm going to go find him and get me some kitty snuggles.  (was that life #1/ 9 for him??)  He really is a wonderful cat...  mellow, smart, sweet, and puts up with the antics of a 5 and (almost 7 year old)...