Curiosity and the Kat

One month down. My first 30-day challenge completed. I think I’m going to keep the sugar out of my diet for the time being. It seems to be working for me. Tomorrow, I start a new challenge – one in which I will be adding something new rather than taking something away.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure…I wrote this yesterday. Today (maybe while you’re reading this) I am at the second round of interviews for the job I mentioned a few weeks ago. It’s both exciting and scary because what if I get it and what if I don’t. Electrified is a good adjective for how I’m feeling. That’s great if I’m a light bulb, but scary too because getting struck by lightning is also electrifying. It’s all in the delivery.

Anyway, I can’t write and interview at the same time AND I never know that the afternoon will bring. I am hoping that doubling up today will make up for taking off tomorrow. Just in case I need to.

Right now, I’m channeling my inner college student. I’ve met a beloved friend at a quirky local coffee shop – because it’s National Coffee Day and we both love coffee. We are sitting across from one another studying and writing and giggling and drinking our magic bean nectar. It’s even more college-y now than when I was in college because I didn’t drink coffee then.

Anyway…it’s good to get away from my office and out in the field. Too much of the same ole, same ole isn’t good for me.

On that front, I also ran hills yesterday morning for the first time in eons with another beloved friend. Hills are hard. My chest felt kind of like it was going to explode – all five times. That’s a weak heart muscle I think. I don’t love to run hills, but I LOVE – and had forgotten how much I love – the way I feel when it’s over. It’s a feeling that continues for hours and hours. Everything in overdrive…brain, body, metabolism, and, if memory serves, it all ends with a night of gloriously sound sleep. All of those gifts in exchange for 45 minutes of hard work? Seems like a good trade-off. And since I need to double up on writing today, the timing is perfect.

All of this is to say that it’s really good to get out of my comfort zone. I am scared to go there…outside the zone…even though that’s supposedly where the magic happens. The fact that I’m going rogue (for me) with some partners in tow makes it a little easier. New things are less scary in community. Interviewing for jobs…have laptop will travel where my writing is concerned…pushing myself physically…it all makes me feel younger than I know I am. It all makes me feel pretty alive.

And then I heard about the Meerkats.

See, there’s this Zoo and it has a meerkat exhibit. These meerkats reside in a lovely desert-like habitat close to all of the other zoo-type cats…lynx, jaguars, snow leopards, tigers, lions. And cheetahs, who are their across-the-street neighbors.

My daughter came home with a story about these meerkats last week that was freaky. As I tell you this story, there are two things I want you to keep in mind about Meerkats:

They dig tunnels. Lots of tunnels.
They do things together…in community.

There are also two things you need to know about Cheetahs:

They are the fastest land mammal.
They prefer gazelles as their source of food, but are not picky (apparently) when removed from Sub-Saharan Africa.

One day, the meerkats at this zoo decided to venture outside their comfort zone and proceeded to tunnel from their habitat all the way under the pedestrian walkway and into the cheetah’s lair. That’s the end of the story. It was also the end of those particular meerkats.

After I heard the story, I decided to < fact check > which is always a good idea when a 14-year-old tells you a story. First I googled it and found nothing. Just a bunch of articles about meerkats and a few articles about this particular zoo. I searched the zoo’s website and also found nothing.

At this point I assumed that someone was being punked – either me or my daughter. So I asked her where she heard the story and she told me it was one of her teachers. Feeling less punked, I texted the teacher and asked for the grown-up version of the story. Turns out my daughter had it right…except that she left out the part where it was five years ago. I had assumed that it was a recent occurrence. It also turns out that the zoo kept it quiet…pretty amazing in this day and time…which is why there wasn’t anything about it on the Internet. This teacher knew because a sibling had worked at the zoo when it happened.

Once confirmed the story disturbed me on many levels. First, I love the meerkats. They live in colonies of 20-30 and the females all take turns looking out for each other’s babies. All the members of the colony form strong social bonds with one another. Each colony has sentries who take turns looking out for everyone was they forage or play. It’s kind of like a village. Second they are cute. Cuddly – even with those tiny sharp claws. I know I should look at them like upright rats, but I don’t. And…food chain and natural selection be damned…I think we should save all the cute animals.

Then, there is the metaphorical fear that this story provokes.

Stepping (or digging) outside our (my) comfort zone always leads to the unknown. Whether it’s physical (can I run 26.2 miles?), emotional, (do I want to know what that dream means?), mental (do I have the skills to fill that position?), or spiritual (am I becoming who I am supposed to be?), it’s all at risk.

There could always be a cheetah waiting to devour me at the end of the tunnel.

But I think I have to do it anyway, because staying in my own comfy habitat carries with it the perils of stagnation and decay. Muscular atrophy…emotional immobility…mental torpor…resistance to change…all of these things sound like what happens when you give up. I’m too young to give up so I guess I’ll just keep taking my chances with the tunnels.

Sometimes the tunnels lead to freedom and ‘sometimes’ is good enough for me.