“What dreams do you dream?” ft. Huckleberry

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
― Anatole France

( D here! This is a Q&A with a very special guest hosted by yet another new face, someone I absolutely love and trust! Kudos to Evin for suggesting this idea! Today, my pet dog, Willy is going to be interviewing Anna’s pet kitty, Huckleberry! Similar pet collaborations are on the way; keep an eye out on Diamond’s, Lizzie’s, Shanessa’s and Evin’s blogs to meet all of our trusty four-legged friends!

Without further ado, I’m going to retreat to my place as a translator for all the doggy and kitty talk!)

(All photos of Huckleberry were kindly provided by his human, Anna!)

hello!

Huckleberry!! I’m so excited to meet you! Did you know that I love cats? Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and your person?

Ayyyy Willy! Nice to meat you! (Definitely didn’t spell it like that on purpose) Wait, you LIKE cats? Well that’s good, although I can’t say I particularly like dogs…. I’ve been scared by them too many times!

But purrhaps if you don’t get too close, I will like you just fine!  Umm a little bit about myself? Hmm.. well, I am 1 year and 2 months old, and I am a super adorable orange and white cat… In my spare time I love to bite my person, and jump at her and cling to her legs and make her scream😼 I also love to go crazy around the house chasing hairbands and random items.

My human is kinda boring…. She won’t let me be on the counters or chew on things, she makes me stay outside when I’m hyper, and she doesn’t give me enough treats….. That’s pretty much all I know about her.

Hehe, I’m older than you are! What do you do in a typical day? Do cats really sleep 12-16 hours per day?

Well, first thing in the morning, I’ll wake everyone in the house by meowing at the top of my lungs, trying to get someone to let me out of my human’s room…. Then once someone lets me out, I’ll whine until someone feeds me.😼

Then one of my human’s parents will toss me outside and I’ll go chase birds and squirrels for an hour or so. After that, I’ll go to sleep for awhile, and in between naps I’ll tease my human’s other cat (her name is Peeka, and she’s OLD)……erm, well….I guess you’re right about the fact that cats sleep for that long during the day👀 Except my human wakes me up a lot, so sometimes I get less.

That’s still a lot of sleep. I’m curious, what dreams do you dream?

Oh, I dream lots of dreams…. Most of them involve me chasing mice or squirrels up skyscrapers in big cities, although I often have horrible nightmares of ENORMOUS dogs chasing me up trees… And then the dogs climb up the trees with me, even though in the real world, they can’t do that!  Those dreams scare me so much that I’ll get up and snuggle next to my human so that she’ll keep me safe.

What’s your favourite outdoor activity? I do love a good adventure in my backyard! You’d be amazed at how many creatures stop by there on an average day!

Ooooh, I’d have to say my favourite outdoor activity is stalking the birds by our front porch…. That and rolling around in the dirt, making all my white fur look brown. 😼

What do you do when your human doesn’t understand what you’re trying to say? This happens to me all the time; the elder humans at home come to my rescue when my human can’t sense anything through her human eyes.

I usually meow and whine very loudly when she doesn’t understand me….. it doesn’t really help her to understand me, but at least I can express my frustration.

Do you wish you and your human had telepathy? I do.

Definitely! That would make my life so much easier!

Ooh, have you ever travelled in a car? My family takes me for all the long trips and I get to sleep the whole way and it’s a bonus to get pampered for consecutive days! Now, why would I complain!

The only times I’ve ever been in the car is to see the vet, and so being in the car is a living nightmare to me….. I usually complain very loudly, hoping that they’ll change their minds and not take me to the vet, but it never works….

If you could speak the humans’ language, what’s the first thing you’d say?

I would probably say “Don’t touch me!” When my human’s sister tries to pick me up, orrrr “Let me out!!!” When nobody will let me out of my human’s room.

Who is/are your best friend(s)? I love everyone in my family! The cats are a bit weird (no offense) but they’re mildly interesting to watch!

My best friend is my human, and my human’s mother…. I don’t like the other cat (that’s ancient) very much…. She’s mean to me.

If the human world’s leaders decide to set up a Cat Parliament, what would you want to be? Any laws you’d want to introduce? I’d want to open schools with dog instructors (with free snacks and toys!)!

I would want to introduce a law that all cats should be provided with an unlimited supply of catnip and tuna….. That would make our lives so much more enjoyable😼

Finally, what’s your life’s motto? What inspires you to do your best when you can’t find a cozy enough place to sleep?

My life’s motto is…. “You can never get too much sleep,” What inspires me to do my best when I can’t find a cosy enough place to sleep? Food😼

“Cats are a mysterious kind of folk.”
― Sir Walter Scott

Click here to read my answers to Huckleberry’s questions!

Thank you so much for answering my questions, Huckleberry!!
Since you’re here, why don’t you meet my friends from the blogospere too?

Meet Rocket!

Source: Diamond

Ava says hi!

Source: Shanessa

Aw..say hello to little Oreo!

Source: Evin

And that was all! I loved getting to share a bite about all of us with you all! Got any four-legged friends I could befriend? Let me know!

bye!

Thoughtfully yours,
Willy

In Burgundy

In Burgundy | Poetry – Random Specific Thoughts

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.”
― Lloyd Alexander

Under a temporal roof, does
This tale take place.
When they refused to stand
For fear of falling,
In Burgundy, we chased the stars.

Forgotten thoughts left to oscillate
Between realms unknown, were all we were.
As daisies^* withered
Under stares of scrutiny,
In Burgundy we blossomed.

Victims of hope, were we
Who challenged gods and fate.
In wars for change and progress,
As we lost fragmentary pages to the wind,
In Burgundy we defied paths unknown yet.

Akin to the setting sun
Of time, we were in dearth.
Whispers left unspoken
Drowned love, that ran out of people.
All the while Burgundy sewed stitches ten .

In Burgundy, life goes on
Fueled by the fluid of passion
That runs deep in our roots.
In Burgundy, children speak
For their dreams and desires.
In Burgundy does hope reside
For beats here, the heart of the just.

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

^*Daisies symbolize innocence and purity.

Quick note: My friend, Diamond @ Build A Bears Furever is hosting a photostory contest to observe her fourth blogiversary! The best part is, you get to choose which of her bears play your characters (if you want) and believe me when I say, she’s got all sorts of bears with different outlooks and personalities! I’d absolutely love it if you could check out this post and participate!

And today is March 21, World Poetry Day! “World Poetry Day is celebrated on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard” {Wikipedia}

Poetry is an ethereal form of expression and an embodiment of beauty, a free channel of speech, open and accessible to all. It isn’t all writing; akin to how Walt Whitman says in his poem, The Voice of the Rain; that rain is the earth’s poem, poetry is around us in all forms of beauty. I’m so thankful for all the wonderful poets I’ve met here and whose books I’ve read. Keep writing and inspiring!

Thoughtfully yours,
Introverted Thoughts aka D

Closure

Nothing changes until people decide to do the things they must, in order to bring about peace.
― Shannon L. Alder

Sometimes the harder one holds on, the more they realise why they should let go.

The day is young and we trudge along the numerous alleyways and by-lanes, all packed with fables of days bygone. Just as the sun begins to rise, just as a new day is beginning to take birth, we approach the doors to the chambers of our hearts.

I pick up the rusted shovel from the place it has rested for years on end, akin to how we kept our love for life untouched, hoping it would make an appearance someday. The dust that had accumulated on it due to years of disuse, is brushed away.

Using it, I gently lay, in a hole, every tiny aspect that fostered pain and regrets in our lives. Every second, sometimes days, every memory, every instant; into the hole they all went, one after the other.

We then supply it with an endless stream of tears and cleanse them of the black stains that had begun to defile our souls. The sight of the black muck seeping away to the depths they belong, finally provides us with the peace we have craved for so long. Soon, we adorn the now clean pile, with shards of sorrow and loss.

And then proceed to fill every hole on our hearts in a similar manner; filling them up, washing them, adorning them. Laying a fresh layer of soil over the barren land covering the holes, we let the rains ushering in a new era, bring everything together.

Now we sit and wait. And watch as the time ticks away; second by second, ever so slowly. And then we see it happening. A tiny sapling rises from one of the holes. Gradually, every hole begins to exhibit its very own, tiny but immaculately clean sapling, with small but gorgeous leaves. I wait, knowing time favours us now, and watch as they flourish into towering trees; trees I know will one day provide us with warmth and refuge.

We take our seats and watch as new life unfolds before our eyes. With fierce embers of joy, we bear witness to a miracle and find joy in the novelty we see ahead, as new saplings take birth.
Life has started anew.

An era of impossible dreams,
Based on free will
And forged in the heavens,
Where lives matter and love rules,
Where fantasies reign,
Is not a distant dream.
Not anymore.

What was closure if not a clock? Not an end as everyone imagined, but a beginning.
― Celeste Chaney, In Absence of Fear

Image Source: Deviant Art

Photo by Renzo D’souza on Unsplash

Image Source: Global Action Plan
Green is a very down-to-earth color. It can represent new beginnings and growth (Source)

I think dwelling on the past can do so much more damage that living in apprehension of the future. It’s important to work towards a better future and get over what happened but also learn from the past. Be it anything, not just the virus; bury it all, use it as manure to facilitate the growth of resilience and faith! Have a great year ahead!

Thoughtfully yours,
-Introverted Thoughts aka D

Perspective Changed

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.
― Walt Disney

Just a few weeks ago, Cheryl @ Gulf Coast Poet, who is a wonderful poet, mentioned in a comment on What Could Be(a recent post of mine), a line from the song, The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell. The line went ‘…dreams have lost some grandeur coming true‘. It has been lingering in the back of my mind ever since. I’ve never thought about what happens when a dream is achieved, I just assumed it would be a happily ever after, but that is definitely not true in most cases.

It’s a beautiful song. I loved everything about it! If you’d like to, please listen to this song while you read!

I couldn’t help but see how much importance I placed on Dreams, not to mention the fact that my tagline is ‘A Dream In The Making’ that indirectly implies that achieving dreams is the finishing point. But, it clearly is not. As Joni Mitchell puts it, dreams do lose some of their grandeur when they become a reality because it is the impossibility or improbability that made it seem so desirable or grand in the first place.

It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening.
― H.G. Wells

We dream for a clean and healthy planet and unbiased justice systems and equality for all, but what happens when they come true? Will we begin to take them for granted now that it is now no longer a dream or will we continue to cherish it with the same importance we once attributed to it?

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Taking our current lives into consideration, it seems as if, the freedom to simply walk around without having to worry about a microscopic organism inflicting harm on one, has reduced to a distant dream. Events like visiting family or even going to a grocery store have now to be undertaken with so many precautions and have to be carried out ever so cautiously. Before this pandemic happened, these things seemed so insignificant and just another part of our lives.

No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
― Martin Luther King Jr.

We seem to have a one way perspective, a line of sight that begins at one end and proceeds on. We don’t have one that begins at the opposite end. Hence, we see how things begin and assume how they end. How they appear, after the start comes to an end, is completely another question in itself. But now that we have thought about dreams losing their grandeur on coming true or vice versa (what we once took for granted becoming dreams), maybe we’ll try and preserve their splendour in our minds so that it remains prized forever.

Had we had the same attitude towards our planet, fellow humans, animals and plants, realising how each and everyone is a dream in themselves or someone else’s dream, I can’t help wondering how different the world would have been.

A changed perspective from the other end of the spectrum seems to make conclusions that once ruled above all almost non-existent. However, that is most definitely not a reason to stop dreaming. Where would we be if we didn’t have dreams to fuel our progress and propel us forward in the first place?

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash

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Related Post:
What Could Be

A huge thank you to Cheryl for sharing this song!! Feel free to share similar songs with thought-provoking lyrics! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on ‘..dreams have lost some grandeur coming true’!

Thank you so much for reading!

FANTASY

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it.
― Lloyd Alexander

In mourning everyday,
Unable to keep life at bay,
I see a fantasy dream
Beckoning to me, everyday.
Closing my eyes,
I visualise
A world of wonders,
And hear a whisper
Drifting through the air.
“ Forget it all.
All your dreams and miseries.
Spread your wings and free your heart.
Rub your slate clean.
Let’s start from scratch. 
Make no mistake,
For nothing can go wrong
In this fantasy of a dream.”

Check out my second site, Paper Hearts here!