Stepping Out of Awareness....

The end of a busy and full weekend, Ollie perched on the neighbor's patio wall

while Gustopher Jones (Augustus) and I headed for the privacy of the back yard

both looking in the direction of the setting sun

both enjoying the soft light, the soft air, the soft solitude!

We continue to have visitors, coming and going, and some of those who left for business, aka Sylvester or kitty daddy, left a big hole in the kitties hearts...very much missed. Gussy meowed for a good 20 minutes from 3:40 a.m. to 4! Ollie did not know what to make of it!

They chose to reflect:




Stepping Out of Awareness
When I step out,
the world assembles itself around me
like my awareness of being who I am,
like my belief in the Divine. (Modern Prayer from Stockholm)

Kitty babes filled their paws with kisses and wishes everyone a happy week...

Ciao!

In good humor

or simply overdosed on tuna,

Ollie has a glazed look in his hazel eyes!

This one though is enjoying what he read earlier during the day (passage shown below).

"The greatest gift of man is universal love - that magnet which renders existence eternal. It attracts realities and diffuses life with infinite joy. If this love penetrate the heart of man, all the forces of the universe will be realized in him, for it is a divine power which transports him to a divine station and he will make no progress until he is illumined thereby. Strive to increase the love-power of reality, to make your hearts greater centers of attraction and to create new ideals and relationships.

First of all, be ready to sacrifice your lives for one another, to prefer the general well-being to your personal well-being. Create relationships that nothing can shake; form an assembly that nothing can break up; have a mind that never ceases acquiring riches that nothing can destroy. If love did not exist, what of reality would remain? … Strengthen this superior force through which is attained all the progress in the world." (BWF)

These pix are actually from two days ago...I thought to post them as my mind wonders between what I have to accomplish today in the lab and the fact that Ollie boy is still outside, probably playing, maybe dozing! Beautiful days in Southern California are very tough on kitty parents who have rascalous cats...Well, August has the right idea...surround yourselves with love and beauty....kitty kisses and love nibbles for all!

Ciao!

At 5:30 or 6:00 this morning, we are playing

Ollie, Augustus and I! If this is not love it has to be insanity. The little drain pipe from the neighbor's patio onto the garden area is a good place this early morning for playing peekaboo! At least I know that I am helping them with their feline education!

Whose fluffly paws are those?
Do I see a little face? I wonder who that is?
Who is hiding from mama?
Ollie looks up and says "it's me!"
Peekaboo!


And here's the two of them, two precious doodles!


After play, Ollie selected this reading:

Nothing has been created without a special destiny, for every creature has an innate station of attainment. This flower has been created to mirror forth a harmonious ensemble of color and perfume. Each kingdom of nature holds potentialities and each must be cultivated in order to reach its fulfillment. The divine teachers desire man to be educated that he may attain to the high rank of his own reality, the deprivation of which is the rank of perdition.

Then we all filled our paws with kisses and blew them in the air!

Ciao!

Escargot for petit dejeuner? At 6:30 a.m.?

Oui? Non?

Oui?

Oui?

Oui?

Non!

Oui!

Non! Absolument pas!

The more mature Augustus eats treats,

and smiles!


We read this after the real petit dejeuner, which consisted of yummy kitty tuna:

"In man five outer powers exist, which are the agents of perception, that is to say, through these five powers man perceives material beings. These are sight, which perceives visible forms; hearing, which perceives audible sounds; smell, which perceives odors; taste, which perceives foods; and feeling, which is in all parts of the body, and perceives tangible things. These five powers perceive outward existences.

Man has also spiritual powers: imagination, which conceives things; thought, which reflects upon realities; comprehension, which comprehends realities, memory, which retains whatever man imagines, thinks, and comprehends. The intermediary between the five outward powers and the inward powers, is the sense which they possess in common, that is to say, the sense which acts between the outer and inner powers, conveys to the inward powers whatever the outer powers discern. It is termed the common faculty, because it communicates between the outward and inward powers, and thus is common to the outward and inward powers.

For instance, sight is one of the outer powers; it sees and perceives this flower, and conveys this perception to the inner power -- the common faculty -- which transmits this perception to the power of imagination, which in its turn conceives and forms this image and transmits it to the power of thought; the power of thought reflects, and having grasped the reality, conveys it to the power of comprehension; the comprehension, when it has comprehended it, delivers the image of the object perceived to the memory, and the memory keeps it in its repository.

The outward powers are five: the power of sight, of hearing, of taste, of smell, and of feeling.
The inner powers are also five: the common faculty, and the powers of imagination, thought, comprehension, and memory."(BWF)

Ollie later told me that as a full-bred card-carrying feline he would not eat escargot but he wanted to demonstrate the interaction of outer physical and inner spiritual powers. "Is that so?", I exclaimed. He said yes with his hazel eyes!

Love and pawfuls of kisses to all but no escargots!

Ciao!

A busy weekend...

We came across these cactus flowers that we had been anxiously awaiting to see bloom


Ollie asked me to take a picture of him sitting in his planter...

Gussy took a peek to see what was going on.


They walked here and there, back and forth, as I followed them..doodles seem to know what they are looking for!



We stood around for some time comparing our toes!




Cat boys did a lot of leaning around as they scoped the area...



And finally, there was some much needed relaxation!




We reflected upon a proverb from the Buddhist religion selected by Augustus:

To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.



Happy Monday Morning to all, kitty kisses and love purrs!

Ciao!

Tomorrow is commencement at Caltech...

An email from a graduating student had me thinking of graduation. She mentioned that she felt shell shocked, which immediately reminded me of my own zombie state after finishing...whew, nothing like it!

I wandered from my office to take in the sights on the campus on this overcast day as students and parents and relatives and friends all prepare for the grand day tomorrow. White chairs already arranged on the green expanse of lawn in front of the Beckman Auditorium, white tents, cables, cameras, loudspeakers...

I took a few snapshots with the handy iphone...
A ceiling in my building at Caltech...


A pot of plants on campus...

A tile on the wall...

The hall outside of my building where graduates will be lining up tomorrow to do the walk...

You thought I'd forget the cat boys??? Not likely....
Here's Ollie cat

and there's Augustus boy!


Best wishes to all graduating or not...pawfuls of kitty kisses for all!

Ciao!