Life knows better

Back then, when we decided we would have two kittens, we were thinking of one boy and one girl. Picasso’s name was never in question! We thought we would name the little girl Françoise—after Pablo Picasso’s partner, the painter Françoise Gilot. After a long search, it turned out that we were expecting two little male kittens from a Lithuanian breeder. We named the other little boy Matisse, because of his lifelong friendship with Picasso. Françoise was no longer mentioned.

When this autumn I started looking for a kitten to keep Picasso company, it never even crossed my mind to look for a female. Strangely enough, despite all my efforts, I kept missing out on the kittens I had chosen. Many breeders live in the countryside, and I had to plan when I could travel to see the little ones. After a while, I decided to let go of my expectations—let the cat come who Life intends for us! Françoise surpasses all our dreams! We didn’t know it, but she was exactly who was missing from our lives. One day, I remembered something a friend of mine once said about her life and its details: “In the end, everything that truly mattered came true,” she said. “Not the way or when I had planned, but the way Life intended. And looking back at how things unfolded, that plan was much better than mine.” I think I feel the same way about Françoise. Life had a much better plan for our meeting—both in timing and in circumstances. Lately, I often think of a “classic” line in this context: everything in my life is going according to plan—but they’re someone else’s plans… And yes… from the perspective of a bigger plan, I am exactly where I need to be, doing exactly what I need to do. /In the photo: Françoise Gilot and Pablo Picasso/ /This piece was written years ago. As I return, it finds its place here once again, unchanged./