You Can't Always Get What You Want

                                                                      Photo by Keith Skelton

My cat, Sequoia, is a determined feline. Perhaps it's because I discovered him homeless in the tiny town of Springville, California near the Sequoia Mountains.  He was meandering around the Springville Inn, the inn I was staying at. He frolicked at my feet while I was enjoying breakfast outdoors, waiting for me, no doubt, to throw him some tidbits to eat. I went hiking in the mountains that day and re-discovered him, again, later on that afternoon, waiting, rolled up in a planter, by the bed-and-breakfast. When I walked by, he lifted his head and purred. His personality was cute, but he wasn't. He was filthy, dirty, covered with ticks and fleas.

"Please take him home," said a woman cleaning the motel rooms. "He'll die here in the winter if someone doesn't take him."

It was an odd coincidence, finding Sequoia, as just two weeks before, I had dreamt that I was on a trip to Seattle and found a cat. In my dream, I had put the cat into a cat carrier and shipped her home. Ironically, my trip to Seattle never happened. It was cancelled eight hours before the first leg of my flight due to a family issue. I was disappointed, frustrated, angry. As a way to relieve my "pain,"  I traveled to the Sequoia Mountains. It was a last minute Plan B.  And, unbeknownst to me, that is where my dream came true. And, isn't that how it usually is? I really wanted the trip to Seattle but I got the cat instead.

You can't always get what you want...

Sequoia has been trying to pounce on the chickens for awhile. He sniffs around their coop and pen, even digs at the pen's surrounding soil. I've seen him sit a couple of feet away, waiting--quietly, stealthy, shy--and then, suddenly, take a running lunge for the cage. The chickens squawk and fly. He watches in tail-swishing glee. His happiness is fleeting. They're still out of reach.

This time, Sequoia sits inside the house, again waiting for his catch. But, there is a screen, a barrier, between him and what he desires.


You can't always get what you want...

After my father died, I dreamt that I saw him. There was a pane of glass between us. I could hear and see him. He could hear and see me. But, we couldn't touch. We each raised our hands to the glass and laid our hands against each other, palm to palm. But, the coolness of the glass replaced the warmth of our touch. We both cried in my dream. Cried because we could see and hear each other. Cried because we couldn't feel each others touch. I awoke desperately, very desperately, wanting my Dad to be alive again. I needed more than anything to feel his warm embrace.

But, there was the glass...the screen...the barrier...between us.

Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones once sang,

"You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want.
You can't always get what you want...

And, if you try, sometimes, you just might find

You get what you need."

So, we don't always get what we want...

we often just get what we need.

I need to remember that.

I think it's called faith.