Kathy’s Books
Appearances
As seen on the weekly Love & Marriage segment of Fox8
As heard co-hosting Relationship Thursdays on Q104
As seen as a guest relationship expert on iVillage.com
NEW! Listen to Kathy's 2-part interview with Trapper Jack and the Morning Show.
Part 1 Part 2Kathy Dawson is a member of the International Coach Federation
Day 5, 6, 7, and 8 … no more mouse in the house!
Well, it looks like we are mice-free! We had four mice appear in four days, and I was sure we had a parade of 15 to follow. Not sure why our visitors have stopped arriving, but we are grateful. We feel confident that we can now return our boxed and bagged food back into the drawer.
Entertaining is one of our most favorite things to do. We look forward to our next guests being human!
Mouse in the House – Day 4
Normally, I talk about relationships between people, but today I am speaking on relationships between people and mice. Today is the fourth day in a row we have humanely trapped a mouse in one of our kitchen drawers. By humanely trapped, I mean we put peanut butter in a non-kill trap to enclose the mouse until we find him/her in the morning.
We have taken 4 trips to Shaker Lakes so far and with each trip, we release a grateful and relieved mouse. My husband and I feel good each time we free a mouse into the woods, but wonder how many more days we will continue to find these adorable, but bacteria-ridden creatures in our kitchen drawer.
Could it possibly be that the same mouse finds its way back to our house? Or are there a battalion of mice lined up to crawl into our drawer each night? Either way, we are tired of being the bed and breakfast for rodents.
I will be writing each day from this point on and hope to have news that our cereal, raisins, oatmeal, and sunflower seeds have once again reclaimed their rightful place in our home.
If you have any suggestions on how to stop mice from sleeping in our drawers, let me know!
Lesson in Letting Go
After 18 years of being a relationship coach, I can say with unqualified certainty that most problems between mates have to do with some kind of control on either person’s or both people’s part. The simple, but difficult answer to most problems in relationships is to LET GO. Easily said, I admit, however letting go is the answer to most, if not all of life’s problems.
Life gives us opportunities to let go on a daily basis. Let’s call it practice time, if you will. From letting go of obsessing over how your mate hangs the toilet paper roll, to having a death grip on changing your partner’s smoking habit, every day presents us with the chance to let go.
I had such a chance yesterday while my husband and I took a 6-hour kayak trip. The weather was perfect. I enjoyed the pleasant trip down the Grand River on Cleveland’s east side, until I headed into the 4th hour of kayaking. At that point, I hit a wall and suddenly wanted the trip to be over. My wrists hurt with every lift of the paddle and my back was screaming at me!
All I knew was that this trip needed to end soon, and I was going to take control. I gripped the paddle with a new-found ferocity and dug it into the water like I was digging for gold. But the faster I paddled, the slower I seemed to go. Five minutes of maniacal kayaking and I was exhausted. In that moment, one of my friends sailed by me and quietly said, “Kathy, you’re working too hard. Just ease up by only putting the tips of your paddle into the water.”
Ease up? Was he crazy? And how could putting the tips of the paddle get me off this river? I had nothing to lose, so I did what he said. I let go of my fierce grip on the paddle and gently lapped at the water with only the tip of the paddle. I couldn’t believe it! I was moving faster than I had the previous 4 hours. The last two hours were the most enjoyable of the trip. Why? Because I let go.
