The world that DEMANDed our attention would have to wait...

as this one morning the furry dudes and I decided to go out on our excursion. The green had started to paint its way in the spaces between the bare branches, in most places,
and not so in other places. This poor coral tree was butchered by our "skilled" gardeners two years ago, and forces a few leaves out each year!
One squirrel took note of our presence...he expected sunflower seeds raining from the skies magically!
Mr Puffy Pants and Mr Sweet Pants strolled almost paw in paw, savoring each others' feline proximity.
The magnificent beasts placed themselves royally in two different spots making observations, the way only big cats know how to do.
Sweet Pants stared right into my eyes, indicating that he was focused and ready for reading.
Mr Puffy Pants got up to find a favorable spot where he too would listen.

He assumed the posture of unencumbered reflection!

We reflected on this passage from The Promulgation of Universal Peace:

"From the fellowship and commingling of the elemental atoms life results. In their harmony and blending there is ever newness of existence. It is radiance, completeness; it is consummation; it is life itself. Just now the physical energies and natural forces, which come under our immediate observation are all at peace. The sun is at peace with the earth upon which it shines. The soft breathing winds are at peace with the trees. All the elements are in harmony and equilibrium. A slight disturbance and discord among them might bring another San Francisco earthquake and fire. A physical clash, a little quarreling among the elements, as it were, and a violent cataclysm of nature results. This happens in the mineral kingdom. Consider, then, the effect of discord and conflict in the kingdom of man, so superior to the realm of inanimate existence. How great the attendant catastrophe, especially when we realize that man is endowed by God with mind and intellect."

We meditated in silence.
Ollie was especially touched. Later when he came to, he made lots of kisses and blew them in the air for you.

Ciao everyone!

Gentle kindness...

This is the scene from yesterday when I was leaving work, sort of exhausted, relieved, wondering. Thankful for this sight that made me think of kindness...sometimes kindness is in the beauty of friends, or what surrounds us, maybe words, maybe in silence.




Surrounded by their gentle kindness of the naughty sort we reflected upon this:

"O maid-servant of God! The mystery of sacrifice is that man should sacrifice all his conditions for the divine station of God. The station of God is mercy, kindness, forgiveness, sacrifice, favor, grace and giving life to the spirits and lighting the fire of His love in the hearts and arteries. I asked God to make thee a sign of mercy, the banner of kindness among His maid-servants." AbdulBaha, Spiritual Teacher

Cat boys made kisses for your weekend and wished you to be surrounded with kindness.

Ciao!

do you look through your leather bound book?

The cat boys and I listened to her. We missed you all.

They made big pawfuls of kisses and blew them into the sunny skies...

Ciao!

The Apologue of the Pearl

A frequently misunderstood spiritual law is humility, in our opinion of course! Its significance can only be explained by analogy to the physical world. Here, energy only flows from high point (voltage) to low. The modern world regards humility as a weakness. It cannot be fake self-effacement. It is a difficult trait to develop, for most of us, but not for cat boys.

It was a panoramic day and we felt that we were floating in the space between units of time. Everyone is busy and playtime presents itself randomly but delightfully!

I noticed feet...packed with energy...ginger feet
I saw the look, that beam of energy...focussed...
I witnessed pecks on cheeks, aahh, so delicious, I wish I had received one.
I observed the proper handling of ginger cats, by their fluffy little tails.
They shared that they wanted to be in a circus...I told them that they already were there.
I observed SweetPants
pretending to walk the narrow rope...gracefully.
I observed proper handling of SweetPants...he is smiling! He said that it tickled.
We reflected on this:

The Apologue of the Pearl
A raindrop fell from a spring cloud, and, seeing
the wide expanse of the sea, was ashamed.
‘Where the sea is’, it reflected, ‘where am I?
Compared with that, forsooth, I am extinct’.
While thus regarding itself with an eye of contempt,
an oyster took it to its bosom, and Fate so
shaped its course that eventually the raindrop
became a famous royal pearl.
It was exalted for it was humble, Knocking at
the door of extinction, it became existent. ( from Bustan, meaning Orchard)

We wish all a delightful Tuesday...cat boys sent pawfuls of their yummy kisses!

Ciao!

sometimes

we like to do this when we have too much to do

and other times we just make faces...it seems to help!

Ollie prefers to find some aromatic and enticing herbal stimulants to ease his nerves
or engage in a good roll on the cement ground.
After shaking off the spell they have on me I usually like to look up...look for light finding its way through the new and old leaves!
Augustus wanted to know what was on our reading agenda this morning! He said that the topic had exhausted itself and that now was a good time to read and reflect! He is bossy sometimes but more adorable he could not be, and he knows it.

We read this together:

"..loss of self-consciousness does not involve a loss of self and certainly not a loss of consciousness, but rather, only a loss of consciousness of self. What slips below the threshold of awareness is the concept of self, the information we use to represent to ourselves who we are. When not preoccupied with our selves, we actually have a chance to expand the concept of who we are. Loss of self-consciousness can lead to self-transcendence, to a feeling that the boundaries of our being have been pushed forward." Mihaly Szikszentmihalyi, in "flow"

"...be thou oblivious of this world below. Be thou wholly absorbed in the emanations of the spirit that nothing in the world of man will distract thee..." Abdul Baha, spiritual teacher

Cat boys could only agree with what they thought was obvious.

Later they made you good wish kisses and blew them in the air!!


Ciao everyone!

What would you do for a klondike bar?

If you were to ask that question from cat boys, properly phrased of course, "What would you do for a tuna pie?", you just might get an answer such as "I'd dance for you". However, I have no such luck! Cat boys do what they want and when they want to do it.

I am only asking them to give me their undivided attention and I am not advancing very far.

We went to our humble back yard that is starting to look more humble each day due to either lazy and/or very unknowledgeable gardeners. I drew the attention of the cat boys to the tree top above where a plump bird of some sort was singing away knowing full well that no cat would manage to go way up that tree.
My furry companions were delighted!

Augustus, Mr Sweet Pants was gauging the heights
while Ollie, Mr Puffy Pants, had love written all over his face!
To make a short story even shorter, this is what transpired when I asked the cats to sit down for their back yard reflective reading.

MrSweetPants, MSP, was thinking about it while MrPuffyPants, MPP was gazing away.
Then I had the attention of MPP but not MSP.
Then I had MSP but MPP was occupied with his paw licking routine.
Then I lost them both to some thought or sight.
Then they were talking amongst themselves pondering how much longer they should exercise their independence!
MPP was finally ready, he remembered who had the can opener for the can of tuna...while MSP remained certain that he could bend my will with his cuteness!
And finally I had the two precious ones, MrSweetPants and MrPuffyPants, ready on their own time, and not one second sooner!
We reflected on:

"A drop of the billowing ocean of His endless mercy hath adorned all creation with the ornament of existence, and a breath wafted from His peerless Paradise hath invested all beings with the robe of His sanctity and glory. A sprinkling from the unfathomed deep of His sovereign and all-pervasive Will hath, out of utter nothingness, called into being a creation which is infinite in its range and deathless in its duration. The wonders of His bounty can never cease, and the stream of His merciful grace can never be arrested. The process of His creation hath had no beginning, and can have no end." Gleanings

Cat boys feeling infinite in their range made many kisses and blew them in the air for you...wishing you a happy January again!

Ciao

Under the curious eyes of two tiny yellow birds

were lazying about two big cat boys!

You would know them by one of many names, and today, that would be simply Augustus and Ollie.

The birds took my breath away, I felt that this was the first time that I had seen such yellow birds in the skies that tent us. When I looked above I only saw one and later when I looked at the picture there was a bonus bird on a lower branch!

Down below in our cement yard, Augustus had just finished his noms and had a serene look on his face, which to me indicated something profound. He wanted to set some goals for himself but he needed to reflect in his own personal space!
When I saw his downward glance I did not need to look down to see what furry gingery naughty beast was waiting down below. You see Ollie plays this game where he likes to block the path for Gus and Gus has to find a way around him.
Here Gus is considering the back way ...Nah nah nah...you don't give in Gus, I advised him.
Ollie is not pleased with me, he is pleased with himself. I am pleased irrespective and I don't even know why.
His Puffiness, Ollie descends on the ground waiting for Fussy Gus to descend.
"Oh, who is giving me the innocent look here? Who is it I want to know."

Fun and games aside, I had two cat boys in front of me, and what better time than this for reading and reflection. So I asked them to ponder over what happened at the dawn of creation...

"A man should pause and reflect and be just: his Lord, out of measureless grace, has made him a human being and honored him with the words: "Verily, We created man in the goodliest of forms” -- and caused His mercy which rises out of the dawn of oneness to shine down upon him, until he became the wellspring of the words of God and the place where the mysteries of heaven alighted, and on the morning of creation he was covered with the rays of the qualities of perfection and the graces of holiness."

Cat boys meowed with delight, they knew all about perfection and grace so they made kisses and ran about frolicking!!

Ciao everyone!

Liebster Award!!!

Well, it is not everyday that one wakes up to an award, is it? So today is/was a special day for us.



I got into my office, turned on the computer, placed my coffee next to it, various thoughts were forming in my head and I was determined to use my consciousness to sort them out and organize what I felt was unorganized. I did not want randomness. I think I was not happy on the inside but had convinced myself that I was. Do you ever have that feeling? I was not thrilled about .... while immensely thankful about ....

Well, this condition did not last very long thanks to one of my favorite blogger friends, dear Mette, who awarded us the Liebster award! Yay! I sensed clouds lifting and rays of sun coming through, light flowing. Thank you Dear Mette.... you made our day.

To honor this award, I decided to do a photo shoot of the furry beauties, and so I present to you today more photos of the boy beauties.

When I told Augustus to pose he did not hesitate, he realized the significance of this event. He lay on his side and asked me if the pose was good.

Ahem, ahem, I liked the way those leaves draped above but I wanted more.
"How's this?", he wanted to know. Ahem, ahem, ...more!
"How's this, the one-sided gaze, pretending like I don't see you?", I told him that he was on the right track.
"How's this?, the love collapse?". "Oh ya!". "I may have to eat you now", I said,
to which he replied with his baby smile.
He finally felt too shy and asked me to stop. I could not ask for more cuteness.
Ginger Puff was listening from a short distance away using his sensitive swivel ears.
He told me that he did not want to pose today...sometimes he feels subconscious of himself!
"He was thinking", he said.
I did manage to catch this wishful look that happens every time
a bird flies overhead disrupting his train of cat thoughts.

Cat boys extended their profoundest thanks to Metscan and all the friends who stop by for a friendly hi.

Augustus used his mental energies to send you best wishes for this first week in January of 2012.
Ollie sent discreet kisses.




The award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.
The rules:
1. ) You are to thank the giver, who gave it to you.
2. ) Reveal your 5 blogger picks, and let them know, by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. ) Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. ) Hope, that the people, you have sent the award to, will forward it to their 5 favorite bloggers.

My 5 liebster picks are:
1)ShannonAnn
2)up and down town
3)Samantha June
4)Grace
5)Violetta

Ciao everyone!

PS-cat reflections will resume shortly the boys promised