Karen Lynn-Chlup at the Self-Realization Fellowship Shrine

Hello, dear readers,

Today I will tell you a story about a very wise cat. She wasn’t a real cat, but her parents and friends called her Kat. She didn’t hunt for mice—she hunted for the truth. Ever since she was a baby, a toddler, and a young child of ten, she couldn’t tolerate comfortable untruths. They bothered her to her core. In the 1950s, the era she was born, such an attitude was not always condoned. 

As she grew up, she did not mean to hurt anyone when she told her truth, but to help herself and those around her get through their unpleasant feelings and emotions. This helped her and other people. She helped one on one to avoid hurt and pain, and to move on from the past and learn to live in the present moment.

It was not just easier all the way around to face these life lessons and be loving, accepting, and gentle. It was a way to make the world better for everyone. So, Kat learned to face injury, both physical and mental, personal loss and suffering, deaths in her family and among her animals, letdowns from people, and the dissatisfactions that came from harm and damage.

At the same time, she always stood up for herself and refused to accept ableism in any of its forms. For instance, when she was in college, the director of the Learning Resource Center told the Dean that she had cheated on her tests. Kat had to exchange several letters with him to prove she did not, but she succeeded, and in due time she graduated with honors. Follow this link for the full story.

After a lifetime of effort and doing the legwork, she accomplished the unaccomplishable. This represented hard-won wisdom. People often asked Kat how she got so wise. This is how she did it.

What have you done for yourself to make you feel wise and to become wise?

Text and image ©2026 by Karen Lynn-Chlup.