Byte: Catherine Svehla ~ The Cat Who Saw A Ghost!

Hey,

Everyone,

And welcome back to the Bite Size Blessings podcast.

I just want to let you know that these last few weeks have been totally crazy,

And I've been trying to get my guest this week,

Dr.

Catherine,

I've been trying to get her for an interview and things just kind of went sideways once in a while.

The day we finally decided to have the interview,

All the power was shut down to the neighborhood.

I thought to myself,

Okay,

I have to be losing my mind.

This cannot be happening.

So I called her and I said,

Hey,

Look,

I can drive into town and use my hotspot and I will interview you in my car.

And so that's what I did.

It was so hot in my car,

But I just could not let this chance to interview Dr.

Catherine slip away.

And she was so gracious and kind about it.

Here I am sitting in my car like a weirdo,

And she looks amazing.

And I'm sweating,

By the way,

Because it's so hot.

But,

You know,

I kept my cool sort of Dr.

Catherine absolutely kept her cool and we got it done.

All this to say that,

You know,

Sometimes interviewing people for the podcast and working on this podcast can give you some curveballs that you don't quite expect.

But yeah,

I'm trying to,

You know,

Figure those out and make them work for me.

So Dr.

Catherine is a pretty cool human being.

I really,

Really wanted her on the podcast because she dances in the areas of myth,

Folktale and fantasy.

She has her own podcast called Myth Matters,

And she's someone that is deeply invested in the stories in the world,

The stories that humans make,

The stories that cultures make and how in general,

You know,

All of us who are kind of groping around in the dark are trying to figure out why exactly we're here.

But the one thing that I was really drawn to was her spirit.

It's just utterly extravagant and fabulous.

And on our website,

There's a great quotation from the mystic Kabir.

And it says,

If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,

Do you think ghosts will do it after?

And I think that quotation is urging all of us to just live life wholeheartedly.

And that means with every atom of our hearts,

Every single day,

Go out there and take a great big bite out of life,

Like it's the juiciest apple or the most delicious piece of pie or whatever item of food floats your boat,

That we have this life,

We're in it,

So why not make it count?

So that's my intro for Dr.

Catherine.

So now here's the conversation.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

And I said,

Well,

The only Henry I've ever known was my grandfather,

And he has been dead for more than 10 years.

And this chiropractor's name is Daniel.

Daniel says to me,

Well,

Henry is here and has some things to say to you.

Okay,

So one thing that immediately comes to mind,

Requires just a little bit of setup.

So some number of years ago,

So this was like 2000,

I was living in an artist loft in LA.

So in this big space that had this metal staircase that went up to a loft area where the kitchen was,

And I was living there with two cats,

Atticus and Harriet.

And when Atticus was a kitten,

His favorite thing to do was run up and down the steps in the house that I was living in then and be chased.

So it's like every night when he was little,

You know,

He wanted to be chased up and down the steps.

So now he's a much older cat,

But still,

You know,

Likes the game.

And I'm living in this other place.

And he starts jumping up from wherever he's sleeping in the evenings and running up and down this metal staircase,

Like someone is chasing him.

And it wasn't me,

I wasn't like,

And it didn't at this point,

It was,

It had been years,

You know what I mean?

And I'm like,

And I would say to him,

You know,

What are you doing?

Like who are you playing with or whatever?

So this was,

Went on for a while.

And at the same time,

A friend told me about this chiropractor who also sometimes like was a psychic who also sometimes channeled things.

And I was getting ready to do some big things or whatever.

And I thought,

Well,

I don't know.

I don't know what's going to happen.

But I go to this other chiropractor.

I mean,

I made an appointment with this guy.

And I thought,

Well,

Whatever.

So I go,

I make the appointment.

I go,

We meet,

You know,

He's like,

Why are you here?

And I tell him,

You know,

My back.

So in the course of the treatment,

Which was very subtle,

He was like,

Just mostly just had his hands on my back.

At a point,

He stops with his hands on my back.

And then he goes,

Do you know anyone named Henry?

And I said,

Well,

The only Henry I've ever known was my grandfather.

And he has been dead for more than 10 years.

And this chiropractor's name is Daniel.

Daniel says to me,

Well,

Henry is here and has some things to say to you.

You know,

And I mean,

I'm pretty open minded about things.

But I think skepticism is an important part of that,

Right?

Like,

I'd like to think I'm not gullible.

And so,

You know,

I'm thinking,

All right,

I'm sorry.

This is like,

I'm not sure.

I can't explain how this guy could have pulled the name Henry out.

But and so I said,

Oh,

Okay,

Is that so?

And then he says to me,

Yeah,

So your grandfather,

I mean,

For one thing,

He wants you to know you are living a very interesting life.

And he loves playing with your cat Atticus on the stairs.

Okay,

Now I'm face down on the table.

So,

You know,

I am like freaking out.

And so then he went on,

You know,

And then he goes on and he tells me some things,

Including one thing that I remember he said,

You know,

You drive too fast,

And you need to be more careful driving.

And he told me a couple things about my mom.

And at a point I said,

You know,

He was like,

Do you have any questions for me?

And I said,

Well,

How is this happening?

Where are you?

And Daniel says to me,

This is like,

There's not any way really to communicate what this is going on.

Like he can kind of send me some impressions.

But you know,

It's like all circuits blowing,

You know,

I don't really all I can say is that he's had things to do here on this plane.

And it's a much more complicated what happens after death than many of us realize.

Yeah.

And so then so it meant so that was kind of the end of the conversation.

And then when I got off the table,

By the time I got off the table,

I was in a different state of presence.

I don't know if you've ever done any holotropic breath work or like anything that like really suddenly where you suddenly it's like,

Oh,

This is what actually being fully present in the moment is like,

At least I'm getting to do it for a little while.

Yeah,

That's where I was.

And that lasted for about a day.

Now,

The last part of this story is that so he continued.

I mean,

He continued to run with the cat.

And so then I would just say hello to him.

And not that long after that,

I moved to the desert near to Joshua Tree,

California,

Which is where I lived for quite a long time.

And there were no steps there or anything.

And Atticus,

Unfortunately,

Died very unexpectedly.

Yeah,

But then I would go hiking in the desert and there were a couple of spots standing up high where I would go up high and be like looking out over everything.

And I could feel my grandfather there,

You know,

At this point,

He'd been around enough and I'd talked to him enough.

Yeah,

And I would just stand up there and,

You know,

Talk to him.

And that happened a number of times.

And then at a point I noticed I was like,

He's gone.

I could feel it.

And he hasn't I have not been aware of him being in my life since then,

Like around with me here.

I hope you got some kicks out of the conversation that we had this week.

And I just hope that each and every one of you just loves hearing about myths.

About folktale and fantasy as much as I do,

Frankly.

Yeah,

It's kind of an addiction of mine,

But it's a good addiction.

And I think that each and every one of us should have at least one good addiction.

I myself,

You know,

Believe deeply in myth,

Believe deeply in the stories we tell ourselves,

The stories that our cultures create.

Because,

You know,

Whether we like it or not,

Those stories,

They really influence all of us.

And,

You know,

Me,

I'm a firm believer in liminal spaces.

And so any excuse to talk about the places where archetypes can come alive and and work their magic in this world.

I just want to thank each and every one of you for listening.

It means so much.

Don't forget to share this podcast with everyone,

Even strangers on the subway,

Because sharing is caring,

As we all know.

So thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Dr.

Catherine.

I mean,

Live in the mystery.

I know so many of my guests live in the mystery,

But Dr.

Catherine is really deeply entrenched in it,

Deeply invested,

And is almost like swimming through the myths,

Swimming through those energies that the myths create,

Those archetypes bring into our world.

She's really immersed in it.

And by,

You know,

Kind of immersing herself and making her way through,

She's coming to a deeper understanding,

A more powerful understanding of what it looks like to live into myth or live with myth and fairy tale and folk tale,

And then bring those understandings to the world.

So be like Dr.

Catherine.

And whatever your mystery is,

Whatever your magical liminal space is,

Live with it.

Try to bring it into the world.

Because honestly,

All of us out here,

We need that magic.

We need those myths.

We need what you're gonna bring from those liminal spaces because they're out there.

They might be hiding,

But I have so much faith in you and the fact that you'll be able to navigate those kind of effervescent liminal spaces.

And then I will be first in line,

Waiting to hear and waiting to listen and waiting to experience the kind of treasure that you have dug up and brought back to all of us.

See you next time for the very next episode.

And until then,

I hope that your summer,

As it is slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly ending.

We are in the dog days of August.

I hope that you're enjoying the sun and I hope you're enjoying picnics and parties and afternoon teas and good art and good food.

I hope you're enjoying a whole hell of a lot of fabulous and joyful community.