When Advent feels a bit like Lent...

Yesterday this eagle decided to perch on one of our pilings during the high tide. Though I was on the phone with my daughter, I handed the phone to my husband for a bit just so I could take this picture.

Eagles -- once endangered -- are now quite common (we have a nest of them just across the lagoon), but they don't tend to come this close to the house (I shot from my living room window) so this was "an event."

My cat Sophie, on the other hand, is NOT an event: she is a familiar irritation. I am reasonably fond of her -- though not nearly as fond of her as I am of Alex, our other cat -- but in the morning she consistently interrupts my concentration. She cries constantly until I feed her (which I have to do behind a closed door so Alex won't get her special diet) and then she cries constantly until I let her out, at which point she runs for Alex's food, so I need to put it away because it's bad for her.

Once those precautions are taken I have to either close the door to my office (and put up with her crying to be let in) or I leave the door open and try to type this blog with her lying on my wrists (and, as you might imagine from a cat this food-obsessed, she weighs a ton.)

It's all good, I suppose: she serves as a constant reminder of how selfish and irritable and occasionally thoughtless I can be. She definitely represents -- and triggers -- a part of me I don't appreciate all that much. I'd love to be the eagle -- rare, special, handsome, powerful, someone everyone would be delighted to have as a visitor. And there's some of that in me. But there's also a lot of Sophie in there, and those are the parts... well, I'm grateful my husband and children and friends put up with them, and even more grateful God loves them, but frankly I don't find them too appealing. And lately... well, if I didn't know Advent was coming, I'd think we were rolling into Lent: I'm WAY too aware of my shortcomings.

So in my head this morning I kept hearing this old song by the Animals: "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good -- Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." So I looked it up, and really, the lyrics of the song serve as a perfect prayer for today:

"Baby, do you understand me now?
Sometimes I feel a little mad,
But don't you know that no one alive
Can always be an angel?
When things go wrong I seem to be bad --
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

Baby, sometimes I'm so carefree
With a joy that's hard to hide,
And sometimes it seems that all I have do is worry
Then you're bound to see my other side:
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

If I seem edgy I want you to know
That I never mean to take it out on you.
Life has it's problems and I get my share,
And that's one thing I never meant to do
Because I love you!

Oh, Oh baby don't you know I'm human
Have thoughts like any other one.
Sometimes I find myself long regretting
Some foolish thing, some little simple thing I've done.
But I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood"