Job 20:15

The riches he swallowed he vomits,

   God expels them from his belly.

This reminds me of my cats. They eat too many snacks and out comes everything. Oddly enough they have been refusing snacks as of late. Maybe they are learning.

‘Riches’ was also ‘goods’ and ‘wealth’. ‘Vomit’ was also ‘spit out’, ‘puke’ or ‘spew forth’. No idea why I didn’t go with spews forth.

‘Expels’ was also ‘casts out’, ‘vomit’, ‘empties out’, and ‘drive out’. ‘Belly’ was also ‘stomach’.

We never had cats growing up nor did any of my friends. So, my experiences with them were limited. I was allergic to their dander, so I assume they would never be my problem. Some people we thought were our friends were amazed one night when their mean cat climbed into my lap and settled down. They said it never did that. Now we wish our cats were like that one in this one regard.

My blood pressure had been getting better until the recent issues at work started multiplying. It has slowly risen to the level at which I am going to have to double down on avoiding sodium and getting my exercise in. I have avoided sodium as much as I can for many years, but stress gets me eating French fries and all the salt on them. I do not like the idea of comfort food, but wow do I crave it when my stress level is up.

I know that if I had a dog, it could help me with my stress. It would carry other issues, but they might be worth it. I take a ton of drugs so we can have cats, so how bad can a dog be? Rhetorical. We have actually made huge strides in recovering from the issues at work and the issues on my end are trending better simply due to time, so there will be no dog. But I am learning to pause before responding and giving God a chance to show me His path, so it hasn’t been without gain. That is a good stretch of life.

Written 2/12/26, Posted 4/6/26, Job 473/~1070