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As I walked through the house on the way to the kitchen, I caught a tiny gray figure out of the corner of my eye. Roxy, our elderly cat, sat patiently waiting by the bathroom door for her next spoonful of food.
I watched as she hungrily dove into her tiny serving of chicken pate and thought back 16+ years to the night she chose us. Tiny kitten wandered into a neighborhood kids football game and came home with my son. “No way!” I exclaimed. “Not another stray animal in this house!” We made plans to take her to the animal shelter in the morning, but as I peeked into my daughter’s room that night and saw that little gray ball of fluff snuggled up asleep, I knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
Now Roxy was tiny again. Shrinking slowly but steadily the past few years like a fragile little old lady. The vet said she was doing well for her age, albeit missing a few teeth, suggesting we switch her to wet food to help her to eat more comfortably. This has to take place in a private room so the other animals won’t barge in and steal it from her. So, 6-10 times each day we dutifully give Roxy her spoonful of food, shut the door and wait for her to finish.
Some days I wonder if this is even helping her at all. She’s still thin as a rail and no longer caring for her fur like she used to, but she’s happy as a clam. Still loves to explore the back yard. Always happy to find an open lap to snuggle and purr.
As I sat in a Zoom class this week, the idea of small bites, tiny habits came up and my mind went right to Roxy. For her, progress was being made in each of those small spoonfuls. And it can be that way for us as well. We can still have big goals and dreams, but we can tackle them one small bite at a time. As a matter of fact, that is probably the preferred method. Looking at the big picture and becoming overwhelmed has stopped many a project before it even started. But choosing one small task and completing it, then the next one and the next…suddenly we look back and see the tremendous progress we’ve made.
So, the next time I am feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, I will ask myself, “What is one small thing I can do to move the needle forward toward my goal?” And do it.