Turned Upside Down

Recently my cat became infested with fleas even though he was on one of those popular monthly flea meds.  I ignored the signs: his scratching, the thinning of hair around the ears.  Surely it was just a case of dry skin that a few doses of flax meal should ease. I mean, he was on medication. So it couldn’t be fleas. Right? Not exactly. Apparently his fleas had become immune to the medication. 

His infestation spread throughout the house and before I knew it I had a full blown problem on my hands.  The fleas were everywhere! Now what? For my cat, a shave, flea bath and a new prescription med. For my house, the big guns had to be called and the house turned upside down while the exterminator treated every nook and cranny. But I had bites too, so in addition to slathering myself with Benadryl, every day I had to vacuum, wash my bedding, wear socks to keep my ankles from getting chewed until suddenly it all seemed like a . . . well, like a war. It was me against a tiny irritating enemy.

“How could something so small inflict such chaos?” That was the question I kept asking myself.  Now that the war is over and my cat is fine and I have my house back, my reflection is less tainted with frustration and I see a larger principle here. Flea bites are annoying. But they also hurt and can cause disease. And we all have fleas in our life; those irritating things that keep pricking us, things that are nearly invisible or appear too small to warrant our attention.  Things like the annoyance we feel over our boss never saying “thank you”; or those disrespectful looks and words our teenager dispenses whenever we offer correction; that rough shove of a spouse during a disagreement; that extra glass of wine at dinner.  All seemingly minor but, if not dealt with, can grow into larger issues like not doing your best at the job or quitting it before you get a new one thereby leaving your family in a lurch; like a teenager suddenly out of control; like that occasional shove turning into spousal abuse; like that extra wine becoming a full blown alcohol addiction.

We need to deal with the issues in our lives while they are still small. And apply remedies where needed. To ignore them or pretend they don’t exist is not an answer for they can grow until, to our regret, they turn our life upside down.

Until next week,

Sylvia