walk — 2012 — The 21st Century Matriarch

A cat’s skin is a bigger envelope than is necessary to hold the flesh and bones inside it. - Muriel Beadle in The Cat: History, Biology, and Behavior

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Cats have a grace and fluidity to them all the time and part of it might be that their skin is not stretched so tightly over ‘the flesh and bones inside’ as our skin is. Even when they contort themselves, their skin does not seem stretched. My first cat was one that had longer hair which made this observation difficult but now I have a short haired cat - and it is pretty easy to see. The cat’s skin is like a baggy coat.

Now for a positive thought of the day about what happens to us as we grow older - think of the wrinkles and sags of aging as our skin becoming more cat-like - ‘a bigger envelope than necessary to hold the flesh and bones inside it.’ Are there other ways you want to be like a cat? I want to

Walk at my own speed even though someone is trying to rush me
Be totally comfortable when I still
Focus intently on what is happening around me (even if I am stealthy about it)
Go to sleep easily

You don’t have to be beautiful; you just have to walk as if you were. - Sherry Conway Appel in From Mother to Daughter: Advice and Lessons for a Good Life

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Your walk is the way you are most often moving through the world…it says a lot about you. As Sherry Conway points out…you don’t have to be - ‘you just have to walk as if you were.’

Do some people watching to confirm the notion for yourself?

What do you think when you see a person walking with their eyes firmly on the ground in front of them or someone that shuffles their feet?
Pick a person that has a confident walk. If you saw a still picture of them, would you have the same impression?
Alternatively - have you ever seen a picture of someone then met them later and found your first impression of them from the picture at odds with your second impression?

So - whatever you want to be - ‘Walk as if you were’ is very sound advice.