Occasionally on my nightly walk I get visited by a magical three legged cat.
I hear him before I see him. The jingling of his collar rounding the corner. And then there he is… hopping across the street toward me with everything he has got.
I call him my pirate buddy. 🏴☠️
He does not move like other cats. Not the swift smooth glide of a feline in its prime. He moves with the slow cumbersome disjointed rhythm of a battle tested veteran. Struggling with every step. And yet filled with something that stops me cold every single time.
That sparkle.
When he finally reaches me and I crouch down to scratch behind his ears… I see it clearly in his eyes. Zest. Pure unfiltered joy for being alive and in this moment together.
He does not know me. I do not know him. Two animals on a beautiful planet sharing a moment of connection under a sea of stars.
And every single time he hobbles over to me I think the same thing.
This. This is life mastery.
He has clearly been through something. I do not know what happened. But losing a leg is no small matter for a creature built to move on four of them. Whatever it was… it had to hurt.
And yet here he comes. Every time. Excited to experience. Struggling to move.
Not in spite of the pain. But right alongside it.
I have seen incredible pain in my years on this earth and in my 15 years working as a hypnotherapist. Parents losing children. People losing loved ones. Limbs. Purpose. The will to keep going. I have even lost half of one of my own fingers to a lawnmower.
The truth is hard and simple.
Everyone we love we eventually lose. Nobody gets out of here alive. And the journey is full of pain and loss and sorrow that no amount of positive thinking makes disappear.
And yet.
We find beauty in the process. Joy in the journey. A flower opening in the morning. The touch of a lover. A sunrise over the hills that takes your breath away even though you have seen a thousand of them.
Life is fleeting. And that is exactly what makes even the smallest pleasures feel sacred.
Zest for life is one of the great secrets to happiness. Not the absence of struggle. Not a perfect past or a perfect body. Just that unshakeable spark that says… I am still here. And I am glad to be.
I have watched people find this spark through God, through mission, through children, through love, through purpose that gives their pain a reason.
When I work with hypnosis clients… especially the ones who come to me as a last resort after trying everything else… one of my deepest goals is to find that spark again. Sometimes it is buried so far under years of pain and programming that the person has forgotten it was ever there.
But it is always there.
My job is to help it shine again. In whatever form it wants to take.
Whatever gives you that zest for life… find it. Protect it. Feed it.
And if you need some help finding it again… I am here.
Sign up for a FREE consultation and let’s see what is possible together >>> https://calendly.com/andyeversole/20min
Much Love, aE










