Me, the Lion, and the Cat in the Mirror
A family friend sent me an instagram post from an astrology account that depicted a Lion in what looks to be a portal, the post itself was to describe what the astrologist/Instagram account depicted for the date the picture was posted (8/8/2020). It wasn’t the message that the instagram post tried to convey that triggered a reaction from me, but rather the picture of the lion itself. It reminded me of a paper I had to write in college that ended up being published in my professors publication for that year.
The paper was based on a prompt he gave us, and I called it “The Lion and the Cat”. I vaguely remember that the prompt was inspired by an image of a Lion looking into a mirror, and we were supposed to write what we saw when we looked at our reflection in the mirror.
When the instagram post was sent to me, it instantly reminded me of this prompt and it made me think…If I had to write wheat I saw in my reflection today, what would I write? At the time, I wrote that the image wasn’t of a Lion, but rather a cat depicting what he saw himself in his reflection. As a Lion, the cat was showing, himself and others, that he thought of himself as a Lion; someone with strength and power. I remember quoting an Eleanor Roosevelt quote, “no one can make you feel inferior without your own consent”. It reminded me that by the cat seeing himself as a Lion in his reflection, he was saying that mattered most to him isn’t what other people saw/thought of him but rather what he thought of himself.
By seeing a Lion in the reflection, he was telling himself that he was “king of the jungle” and who are we to tell him otherwise? The cat can be whomever he believes to be. The mere fact that he is “king of the jungle”, or at least he thinks of himself as such, means that he has a sense of confidence that no one can take away.
Have you ever had this sense of confidence in you? Do you see yourself as someone stronger than you feel? I have my days where I feel that I am queen of the world and I am unstoppable. No one can get in my way, and no one can stop me from excelling at what I am setting my mind to. Then, there are days where I feel like the lion in the Wizard of Oz who lacked courage. Mark Twain once said, “courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave.” The picture of the Lion and the cat depicts this exact quote by using the reflection of the Lion to embody the feelings of the cat.
Now looking at the picture of the Lion in the portal, you see that the cat grew into this powerful Lion. He mastered fear and became a courageous lion, leader to the other animals in the jungle. He is showing people that we are capable of rising above our hidden strengths — to rule.
If I was to look at my daily life as this cat turned lion in the portal, I am reminded of a quote by Goldie Hawn, “I’ve finally stopped running away from myself, who else better to be?” It’s such an accurate quote. The cat stopped running doom who he wanted to become and it’s that confidence that led him to become who he was destined to be. That’s an embodiment of what I want to do for myself; I want to accept my inner desires and become the best version of myself. Someone who is strong, confident, and powerful.
The Lion is treating me, and us, that we are able to act on our self-acceptance to become who we are destined to be. Believe in your own self-esteem and power, and create that Lioness that you hide inside. Hold your head high, face the hardships in the world, and OWN it.
