today has flown by with me deep in the sofa with my laptop on. it started when i ordered some postcards and stickers for my shop from moo, and dragged on while i made some new banners and everything went glitch, glitch, glitch... oh, technology, how much easier you don't make my life...
i made my new etsy and shop blog banners a bit rustic, and they're not really what i have in mind for the brand, but they fit what's for sale at the moment and somehow this cohesion feels right just now. for the winter and spring i will move more towards simplicity and cleaner lines, but this needs to brew. i will attend a five-week entrepeneurship course in october, which will take up a lot of my mental energy, but hopefully it will give me crystal clear ideas as well.
i have been posting nothing but pictures of sleeping rats on my instagram lately. today i've had them for nine weeks, and i am both amazed that it has been that long, and also that it's only been nine weeks, because it kind of feels like they've been here always. i am completely smitten. they are such great characters and so different from each other that they make an interesting pair... they are old boys already but often such babies that i can only laugh.
last night i had a bit of a breakthrough with the shy one. he has a thing with hands and being picked up, and i've been balancing between acclimatizing him and respecting his boundaries. he is originally from a pet shop so there's no knowing just what it is he fears and why. i gave him bach flower remedy drops for childhood trauma, and it's been interesting to observe how he is responding and working through his issues. he seems to get flashbacks or regressions in waves, where he has very fearful days on occasion and then gets a bit better each time. yesterday he got so excited over my food and trying to steal it from the plate, that he forgot to be shy, and after eating a bit of spicy broccoli and mushroom (a no-no for a rat's diet, really, but i thought a little bit won't hurt...) on the couch, both of them went into an umami haze of some sort.
paroni (that's the shy one) climbed on my lap and wanted to be scratched like it was nothing out of the ordinary, and even let me stroke him with my full palm from the tip of his nose to the furry little bum. basu (the greedy one) flopped on his side by my thigh and fell asleep. that was a first, too. i wonder if it had anything to do with how euphorically happy i was feeling after finding a new bit of paradise in the woods earlier... i just felt so content with them finally being both together with me like that, just chillin' like.
this evening, after their tuna dinner, i gave basu a good grooming, as usual. later paroni sort of wandered in for one as well. i was crouched over him so he felt safe like in a cave, and a strange thing happened when i gave him a massage. the energy shifted from his body to mine, and i felt a tense sensation which then shivered away. paroni looked a lot more relaxed after that, and a bit perplexed. usually i don't think that things happen for a specific reason, but it seems that these guys came into my life so i can learn more about energies and healing, which is something that has always been a part of my life but kind of on the side...
i knew all along that rats are intelligent and amazing, but still i am awestruck on a daily basis with them.
on a completely different note, this song has been in my head all day long:
