Patience & Concentration

Today I learned two important magical lessons – Patience & Concentration.
It began when I was practicing my hunting skills on an exceptionally large black and yellow striped beetle. The thing was huge - bigger than my whole paw!
Once I’d captured it, I carried it into the cottage to see if perhaps I could entice the older and slower cats into a game. However, they were all busy meditating, so I deposited the beetle on the kitchen floor and played with it by myself for a while.
I was having a wonderful time when, suddenly, the silly thing crawled under the stove! No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach it and the beetle refused to come out so we could continue our game.
What I needed was some magic … and then I remembered my witch’s lecture in the herb room yesterday about how magic requires concentration and patience. So I hunkered down, my nose a few inches from the front of the stove, and concentrated with all my might on the beetle reappearing.
It took a long time, but finally my patience was rewarded!
My witch entered the kitchen and noticed my concentration. “Poor Grimalkin,” she said, “Did you lose your toy under the stove?” (You can see by this that witches really do have remarkable psychic powers!)
I meowed that I had and she fetched her broom (a very magical tool, I am told…) and poked the handle into the small opening under the stove. She then used a sweeping motion with the broom handle and, within moments, the beetle had been magically summoned and reappeared before me. Concentration and Patience had indeed worked magic!
My mistress pretended surprise at seeing my “toy” was a beetle. She carried it back outside.
Normally I would have protested, but in this case I was too pleased with the results of my Magic to complain.