It’s funny how when things get complicated you try and try and try to make them work and yet the path of least resistance is almost always to let things go.*

What I had to let go was the idea of keeping the cat out of my office and off my desk. We have lived here for over a year, and the entire time we’ve been here, Grinder has had one goal and one goal only…to get into my office. Twenty times a day I would toss his furry orange butt out as soon as he sneaked in behind me. Sometimes I would forget to shut the door and would come back and find him sleeping on the top of my desk (see picture in post below), on my computer, or playing with my knitting.

Finally, the other day, I thought, “One day one of us is going to go over the edge and it’s probably not going to be Grinder. Things have got to change.” So…what I did was clean my office. Not the way I usually do…you know, pick up the laundry, put the books on the shelves…but actually clean it, right down to a good dusting and a sweep. And then I laid a padded envelope over my printer because the printer is on the way up to the top of my desk and he invariably stops there for a look around. The padded envelope helps protect the printer and adds spice and colour to the room because it’s one of those holiday ones. All my knitting is safely tucked away, and every time I get up from my laptop, I close it.

Now I leave my door open and Grinder spends at least a third of his day up on my desk. What I wasn’t expecting was all the other added benefits of not fighting him on this every day. He’s become sweeter! He hardly ever walks on the table, he’s been using the scratching post instead of the blue chair, and he has totally left my husband’s computer alone!

You can’t change someone else, only yourself.

And really, who would want to change this cutie-pie anyway?

*I actually wrote the quote at the top myself in a moment of clarity and have it posted above my desk. It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over apparently, so it’s a good thing I wrote it down!