Flourish Anyway® Today: A Summer Houseguest
While growing up, we always had cats and dogs as pets, and I consider myself a dog person and a cat person. I like both.
We haven’t had a pet in our family for several years, so it’s been nice to welcome our grandcat, Dracula, to be with us for the summer while our daughter has her graduate school summer break.
Dracula has been pretty good at avoiding Tim and me since he and my daughter arrived in May. A few times each week, all of the stars will align and he will decide to grace us with his presence and maybe even let us pet him for 3.2 seconds. We are always very excited when this happens because Dracula is a great cat.
We want Dracula to like us. We want him to want to be with us.
Sigh.
What Dracula doesn’t know is our daughter leaves next Tuesday for her summer internship in New York City, and he will be stuck with his grandparents for eight weeks. Without his usual human, we think he will grow fonder of us. We will be the only people with the power to feed him. We will be the only warm bodies available for him to snuggle up beside.
We are hopeful the transition to having to notice Tim and me won’t be too difficult for the cat. If he gets sad or depressed we’ll handle it, I’m sure. And maybe he’ll realize he can flourish anyway, even with his usual person out of sight for so long.
Beloved pets make everything better for their humans. Maybe some sweet cat snuggles are in my future. I sure hope so. I’ll take those doses of betterment if they’re available.
Much love to the creative souls. May we flourish anyway today and all days.
💚Charlotte
P.S. I wrote about how our pets help us belong in a chapter in my first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.If your pets help you feel less alone, you should check it out!
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Charlotte Donlon is a writer, spiritual director, and gatherer whose work centers on helping people explore themes of belonging, artful encoutners, spiritual growth, and how to Flourish Anyway®, even when life is full, busy, or chaotic. Her work has woven together themes of belonging, art, and soul exploration for more than 25 years. With a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing (2015-2018) and a certificate in spiritual direction (2018-2020), Charlotte guides writers and other creative souls in developing sanctuaries of acceptance and connection.
A Christian in the Episcopal church who believes the tenets of the Nicene Creed, Charlotte employs a universal framework of belonging and connection in her spiritual direction work. She fosters meaningful, soulful conversations and gatherings that are welcoming to all—regardless of faith tradition or spiritual inclinations.
In 2020, Broadleaf Books published Charlotte's first book, The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other.Spiritual Direction for Writers: Everyday Rituals for Your Writing Life is slated for release by Here Below Books in September 2026. Three volumes of Charlotte's "Guidebooks for the Soul"—Take More Retreats, The Great Belonging Project, and Belonging Through Art—will also be published in 2026.
As the founder of several initiatives, Charlotte has established herself as a thought leader and an authentic presence at the intersection of creativity and spirituality. Her essays have been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, and The Millions, among others. A new essay about art conservation, Joan Mitchell, and mystery is forthcoming with Image journal.
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Flourish Anyway® is Charlotte’s online hub for all of her writing, spiritual direction, small press, gatherings, and other offerings.