The Cat Flap: A Tale of Harmony and Balance

This unique wordless picture book illustrated in pen and ink has two "front" covers that can be read from either side. One side tells the story from the black cat's perspective; the other side is from the white cat's perspective.

The installation of a new cat flap in the family home is experienced from the opposite (polarized) perspectives of two cats (a male and a female), until both sides of the story eventually meet in the middle of the book, at a point of harmony, balance, and truth, with the cats in the yin/yang configuration.

Artist, author, meditation guide, dream worker, Kristina Hutch Matthews created The Cat Flap as a tool to help mediators, teachers, restorative champions, parents, teens, and children to live in harmony and balance.

The Cat Flap is:

• An antidote to polarized thinking and a tool to expand vision
• A non-threatening, unbiased exercise for considering divergent views of the same story
• A visual representation of how conflict causes things to feel contracted and compressed, while empathic listening brings about tolerance, acceptance, and expanded vision
• A comforting tool to share with children to help honor all points of view

Why a Wordless Book?

One day, Kristina realized that maybe she liked words a little too much. They can get in the way. The Cat Flap takes the traditional linear storyline and flips it over, unifying two polarized viewpoints. It is intended to be read "circularly," starting from either of the two covers.

The reader is invited to consider the subjective nature of reality, how the story of our life is affected by our perspective, attitude, and point of view. The Cat Flap presents the issue of polarity to even the youngest readers in a way that is fun and playful.

The story illustrates how an individual achieves balance and wholeness within him or herself by possessing masculine qualities, such as determination, assertiveness, and courage, as well as feminine qualities, such as patience, intuition, and compassion.

An Experiential Tool for Mediators

Appropriate for all ages, The Cat Flap is an experiential tool that shows how:

• Details become clearer once both sides are heard and honored
• Different storytellers can focus more on certain details and remember parts of a story differently
• The truth is never known until one looks at both sides of a story
• A story can be told and re-told differently each time
• Previous life experience/outside factors affect the way we tell our stories
• An infinite number of stories can all be "true" simultaneously

Ultimately, when faced with conflict and opposing viewpoints, readers will be able to listen to both sides of a story objectively before drawing any conclusions, and look at how two opposing sides of any story can merge and coexist.

Order your copy of this uniquely designed and beautifully illustrated book for your family, classroom, library or organization.