Welcome 2021!

Happy New Year, Readers!

Humans made it through a year filled with difficulties and uncertainties, but for us cats, it was one of the best years of our lives!

We are happy cats, with mamma home a lot, and we have zero complaints about 2020. 2020 is gone now, and we realize humans learned a lot about what matters most in life during the past year. 

For us, it has always been faith, family, food, and fun. We will get 2021 off to a great start by continuing our habit of starting each day with prayers of thanksgiving. For those of you who are re-examining your life we encourage you to pay attention to your thoughts and words. 

When humans focus on things they can't do anything about, they are not living in peace - they live in frustration instead. Mamma knows that when she starts to worry about things that are out of her control, anxiety and stress sneak in. We don't want that for her or you. 

How much thankfulness are you expressing in your life? If you want a challenge in 2021, try to get through one day without one complaint. 

As you challenge yourself each day to do this, you may find how easy an attitude of gratitude can be. By this time next year, you will have become outrageously thankful. Take it from us cats: meow and you get treats; climb on the sofa, you get to relax. Focus on the good things that you can control. Focus on being thankful for all your blessings.

Here is one of our blessings from the week - our feral Grigio, who we love desperately, visited us daily. 

We hope 2021 brings you health, peace, and joy.

Purr & Paw,

-Stivali. 🐾

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals. - Melody Beattie.

Finding our Mecca for Thanksgiving

I was thinking of ways to help my mamma deal with the upcoming holiday season, other than being my adorable self and allowing her to cuddle me.

In my research I learned about M.E.C.C.A.:

Meditate

Exercise

Create

Connect

Accomplish

This seems pretty intuitive, but thought it was helpful enough to share with all of you. This has been a tough year for most of us, and anything we can do to stay grounded yet hopeful may help us through the holiday season.

Read more about M.E.C.C.A. here: Tips from LiveHappy

We hope you take some time this week to meditate, exercise, create something beautiful, connect with your loved ones, and accomplish something (maybe a task you have been putting off for a long while, this may be the perfect week to tackle it). 

This week we prepare for an annual holiday in the United States celebrating autumn harvest and all our blessings of the past year. The Thanksgiving tradition began a very long time ago, and wide it was proclaimed nation-wide in 1789 by George Washington.

This is a deep-rooted religious tradition; however, now it’s celebrated as a secular holiday. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November here in the States; in Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday of October. Federal legislation set our contemporary date of the fourth Thursday of November in 1941.

Us cats know that Thanksgiving is not going to be the same for most of us in 2020. Please be mindful and respect family members and loved ones who have various comfort levels in joining in-person celebrations. This is a perfect opportunity to have a no-judgement zone and show respect for those who choose not to join in-person gatherings.

We give thanks despite this challenging year. We are grateful to you, our readers, who continue to support our little blog. Even if you aren’t able to physically be with your loved ones this year, we sincerely hope your Thanksgiving is filled with love. 

Merriam Webster defines the word mecca as a place regarded as a center for a group. May you find a special mecca in your world to carry you through this holiday season. Maybe meditating, exercising, creating, connecting, and accomplishing will help us all get there. 😺 

Purr & Paw,
-Stivali. 🐾

Vegetables are a must on any diet. I recommend carrot cake, zucchini muffins, and pumpkin bread. - Pasqua Scheggiare Marino.

Simple solutions to stay healthy and optimistic during this challenging time.

It is a very strange time. Ma doesn't go anywhere and stays home with us all of the time.

It was nice at first, but now we are wondering, "What exactly is going on?".

She told us that initially it was a two week shelter-in-place government request to remove the burden from the hospitals, so that they don't get overwhelmed with virus patients. After two weeks, the advice changed, and the government ordered a longer time to stay in.

Since this is a federal guideline, we are aware that there are a lot of people out there struggling with this. Perhaps, these guidelines have forced you to lose your job, and have put your bank account at risk. We cannot even begin to understand how scary that must feel, our prayers and thoughts are with all of you.

Our ma recently read this article, 5 Tips, that we share with you in hopes that it brings some solace to you during these challenging times. The tips are:


1. Stay in the present

2. Allow for emotional expression

3. Remain connected

4. Get creative and have fun

5. Serve others

Widian Nicola, D.S.W., LCSW, the assistant professor at Seton Hall University ends her article, with this great advice, "Whatever you do, do your best. That is all anyone can expect at a time like this."

Stay Well, Readers, 

-Stivali & Pasqua. 🐾