Ode to Thundercat

There comes a time in every woman’s life where you need a safe word. Come on people, get your mind out of the gutter. This is not THAT kind of safe word. But, for the record, my word for that is “squidbillies” because it both kills the mood and gets people to ask, “What the hell is squidbillies?!” But I digress….(I do that a lot lately).

You know how people sometimes say you only have one soul dog? You may have had many four legged little buddies throughout your lifetime but there’s only one soul dog. Well, y’all, I have found my soul friend. My twin flame buddy that I intend traverse the next 40 years with. My ride or die. My laughing, crying, judging, reading, party planning, critical-thought-having BFF.

We have been through some shit. Separately. I am sure we will go through some shit together eventually too. So, early on in this budding friendship, probably before we realized how quickly we would become so close, we decided we needed a safe word. For the stuff we just weren’t ready or couldn’t talk about. We tossed around some ideas. It needed to be something a little sexy but also strong. And for some odd reason, cat, kitten, cougar and other feline creatures kept popping into our heads. Weird, huh? 😉

But we settled on Thundercat because, why not and also, she had just bought a Harley so we thought it was appropriate thunder=harley, cat=purrrr. It’s been about a month sense this genius idea. Have we used Thundercat? Yeah but not in the way it was intended. It’s our word though and we’ll do what we want!

The point is, while it’s nice to have a safe word, it’s even better when you don’t ever feel like you need to use it because you just feel so utterly safe and….seen. She will probably kill me for putting our word out into the world but I’m confident I’ll be forgiven. That’s the thing about her…and about us. A constant shelter, is how I’d describe it. Forty five years in and I’ve finally found the person that I’ve been looking for and, not surprisingly, it’s a strong, beautiful, intelligent, and independent WOMAN. So, when we say we’re going to build a compound and let the men folk (if there are any we allow around) hang out in the garage or the man cave while we dominate the house, land, lake, whatever – we are not f*cking around. No she sheds for us, thank you.

With her, I feel indestructible and yet, when I am weak, tired, in need of someone to set me upright again, she is there for that too. It is a constant state of peace. A softening of the beat of my heart that for a while, was about to pound right out of my chest. She makes life better, more fun, exciting, relaxing…all the things.

There will come a day for Thundercat though, I’m sure. For now though, it has many applications and I will keep those to myself, thank you very much! So, for my ladies out there, I hope you find your Thundercat. Friendships are so important and studies literally show, they keep us alive longer. I didn’t really fully understand that until I recently realized that there will not be a day, ever, where my girl and I don’t talk – in one of the 17,000 mediums we use. I can’t imagine a day without her. And that, is absolutely something worth being grateful for.