Lectio Divina for Chapter 9

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(I had hoped to post this earlier - Fatigue is very boring)

We are halfway through the book now so I going to start repeating the different Sacred Reading Practices (obviously the idea is to keep drilling away at them so we can get really good at finding the "juiceiness") and it's back to Lectio Divina.

As a reminder Lectio Divinia is a 4 stage practice:
Lectio - the literal reading and narrative
Mediatio - the allegory, symbols and metaphors
Oratio - reflection - how is this text connected with my own life?
Contemplatio - the invitation - what action is this text prompting me to take?

And I have chosen the sentence:
It was the teatime hour, the hour when every cat is lord of his house, and every house without a cat is lonely

I'll put my thoughts in the comments, do please add your own ideas.

Comments

Lectio

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This sentence comes near the beginning of the chapter while Gobbolino is wandering through this unfamiliar town, in the evening, looking for a new place to live after having to leave the Brothers and the Lord Mayor's House.
Is part of a beautifully evocative (and sad) paragraph:
It was the teatime hour, the hour when every cat is lord of his house, and every house without a cat is lonely. Every cat without a house is lonelier still, and Gobbolino trotted along missing the brigjt nursery fire, missing the noisy clatter of the little brothets, missing thr chuckle of the baby, the clamour of the orphanage, the comfort of the farm kitchen, missing even the gloomy cavern where he had been born. He belonged to nobody, and nobody belonged to him.

So it's a time when Gobbolino is yet again having to find a new home and he seems a bit worn down from the always optimistic kitten that he used to be. He's reflecting on his past and missing people that he has cared for. The home that he has just left is the place that he has stayed longest apart from the Witch's Cave and it seems like making the choice to leave was upsetting - even though he still thinks it was the right thing to do.
He's been looking at houses in this new, unfamiliar town and at other cats living in them fat, comfortable tabbies, careless of their good fortune.
He wants a new place to live. It seems like he is afraid he might not be able to find one

Mediatio

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In the sentences around this one there is are contrasts made between inside and outside and having a home and being homeless.
Here the contrasts are between a house with a cat and one without and between a cat being "lord" or lonely.
Anyone who has lived with a cat will recognise their tendancy to become (non-gender-specfic) lord of the household in spite of being small, vulnerable and having limited communication (very much like how a baby becomes its adult's "tiny overlord"). On the surface it could seem like a paradox but to the people involved it seems like simple truth.
The idea of a house being lonely not just the people in it being/feeling alone is intresting and touches on the difference between a building and a home. I know that my house feels less homelike now that I don't have a cat. Obviously for other people what gives them a feeling of home might be the other humans or animals that they live with or particular cherished possesions.

The idea of teatime is something that is cosy and domestic - traditionally a time when the different members of the household gather together after their daytime busyness (which (putside of pandemics anyway) often takes them out of the house. It's not a fancy or formal meal and it's particularly associated with women and children. It's comforting and refreshing. And it exists in the liminal space between day and night as well as marking the return to home and family.
These things can be stiffling from the inside - although ideally they are restorative and bonding. From Gobbolino's view as a homeless outsider they seem magical and something it hurts to be excluded from

Oratio

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For me this text once again comes down to thinking about lockdown and this slightly more relaxed but still very lockdown like for me current situation.
I spent more time in my own home than I have for years - I'm used to dividing my time bwteen different households - and I've felt very lonely. On the most superficial level, the dividing my time between different households has been why I haven't looked for a new cat to live with and I've found in this time I've been missing my old cat (who died 9 years ago) more than at any time apart from in the first few weeks without her.
I have felt trapped by circumstances and that has made it harder to think of ways that I could make this building feel more homelike. I know some other people have thrown themselves into DIY and other homemaking tasks and i wonder what has shaped that difference. (I think making my home feel more like home is something I need to be working on for the future.
It's intresting that even though I am the only person here I don't really feel like lord of my house and I think I need to untangle that more (prolly somewhere more private)

The earlier line about the contended house cats who are careless of their good fortune has really resonated with me and I am aware of how envious/jealous I have been of people who have been in lockdown with others and/or who have Close People and Spaces near enough to be able to do safely socially distanced socialising. I'm struggling to find ways to speak about and process my aloneness that aren't unfair to people who have been with loved ones - I know it's been hard for them too. I want to be fair and compassionate to them (ideally in a way that doesn't involve swallowing my own pain!)

Contemplatio

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I've already talked during the last step about some things I've realised I need to think more about - but they are mostly longer term mental/spiritual untanglings and may well be things that I can't really focus on in depth until after the situation has changed.

The thing I feel called to do right now is to try to notice, and respond to, other people's loneliness and feelings of exclusion...