Hazel the cat, as you’ll know if you’ve been reading these posts for a while, plays a significant role in my life. We’ll soon be celebrating our first year as housemates, which means our relationship is still developing.

The aww factor

At first, I was so charmed she wanted to hang out with me that I was happy to make her the priority. Her noisy purrs and head-butts demanding more scritches took precedence over turning the page of the book I was reading, writing in my journal, or drafting on my laptop.

These days, though, I sometimes make the decision to keep reading or writing, even when it’s contrary to her priorities. That leads me to what I’ve started calling my Hazel test: Is it more important to commune with the cat, or to write another few paragraphs? How determined am I to keep my pen out of her paws, or maneuver the trackpad away from her haunches?

Sometimes, as noted before, I can happily combine thinking with Hazel-time. My hands can rest on her while my brain contemplates, plans, and imagines. But my head can only contain so much, and when it behooves me to commit ideas to paper or screen, there are decisions to be made.

What activities bend your resolve?

You may not have any domesticated animals in your life. Or you may have many more than my single feline. Is there an equivalent in your creative life to my recurring quandary pitting Hazel’s comfort against my writing practice?

It might be your favorite binge-worthy streaming show, or a friendly conversation that really should have wound down by now, or a web search that meandered down a rabbit hole. What’s your Hazel test? What pleasant activities bend your resolve?

It’s not like these are hardcore vices. What’s wrong with entertainment, friendship, or information-gathering? Or quality cat time? Very likely, nothing at all. In fact, those lovely activities can fill us up, so that we’re ready to get back at it.

A rewarding life contains the multitudes of pleasantly idle downtime as well as eagerly active creative time. Not to mention diligent task-accomplishing time – which can take place in a dedicated space, away from distractions and live-in animals..

Hazel’s work-life balance

Hazel has figured out her life-work balance, if you can call it that. When she’s chasing a ball, or cleaning between two of the little pads on her back foot, she is all business. Come to that, she’s all business when it comes to demanding, or at least enthusiastically encouraging, that I hold her face in my hands. She also relaxes like a champ when she arranges a comfortable sprawl on my lap, going from sixty to zero in a heartbeat.

Herself, getting comfy

Equally, when it’s time to absent herself and get some serious shuteye, she’s stealthy and determined. She leaves me behind for quieter, darker quarters, usually involving a soft blanket. She’s got her priorities and is comfortable implementing them as circumstances require.

Are you that accomplished?

Hazel still has things to teach me.

Someone recently said they were working on shifting from a default setting of “how can I help?” to “what do I need?” Raised to be a compliant, feminine sort of person, she has come to see that she’s most useful to others, and most in service to herself, when she assures she’s centered, first. It’s the old “secure your own air supply before assisting others” from the airplane safety speech at the beginning of every flight.

What might you begin doing, to center yourself so you’re more available for your creative projects?

What are the signs?

When do I recognize that Hazel-time has come to an end for now? For me, there’s a knowing in my body. A kind of restlessness shows up, beckoning me to pay attention, and do the needful to take the next step or two. If that involves shifting myself in the chair so that Hazel wakes up and takes off, so be it. She’ll be back. And before we enjoy more together time, I’ll have done a thing or two toward a creative goal I care about. The restorative time with my cat will have filled up my reserves so I’m ready to get to work.

What pleasant, easy activities can cajole you into putting off the creative work that is calling? What are the signs that it’s time to shut off the streaming video, end the conversation, stop the scrolling? How do you know when you’ve replenished enough to get back to it? What’s your Hazel test?

~Anne

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