A day in our complex...

At times this place can be beautiful...only in subtle ways!

 

The other day spring got into me or maybe it was fatigue. On the way home the notion came to me to stop by a nursery and get some plants and a poky object. At the nursery,I immediately bonded with the saleswoman as I readily shared her frustration with the disorderliness of the counter. In return she encouraged me to do the experiments that I had in mind, which were to poke random holes around the back yard and to plant random plants here and there just to see what would happen. And this all came about because an earlier day a neighbor started pulling out these plants (see below) that I thought were beautiful but she called them pesky weeds. I felt embarrassed that I had been so proud of them.

   

So I called upon the neighbor and we spontaneously did some gardening in a primitive way that cave men would do, which would be with poky objects and random planning.  The gardening gave us a craving for McDonalds food, which was generously supplied by husband. We felt good.

 

The precious cat boys enjoyed the moments looking this way and that in the cool early evening.

I caught them sitting together

looking

looking

looking.

I shared with them this

William A. Sigler said...

"This reminds me (in a good way) of The Far Field by Theodore Roethke:

“At the field's end, in the corner missed by the mower,
Where the turf drops off into a grass-hidden culvert,
Haunt of the cat-bird, nesting-place of the field-mouse,
Not too far away from the ever-changing flower-dump,
Among the tin cans, tires, rusted pipes, broken machinery, --
One learned of the eternal…”"

a comment that I read on the blog of one of my favorites  Hannah Stephenson.

I think I felt the eternal briefly.

Cat boys sent pawfuls of smooches and I sent you best wishes!

Ciao everyone!

Endeavour

We have decided to call this month the month of endeavour, there is no question about it really, for cat boys and myself included.

I planted this in the grounds of our complex last weekend as an experiment.  I hope it adapts to its soil and decides to grow.  Ollie helped with the digging while Augustus supervised.

Most days this month I find the cat boys climbing.  I love watching them climb and imagine how incredibly great it would be if I could do the same...scale straight walls silently!

He carefully gauges the heights and springs into action.

Here is Ollie straight up the wall

swishing his tail in joy.

The other end of the wall is host to a jag cat named Sweet Pants.

He looks at me with pleasure when I call him Sweet Pants.  The two do their cat things up there and are back down in no time!!  Only if I knew what was going on up there!

Back down on the wall Sweet Pants was glancing with penetrating eyes

and Puffy Pants who was seated right below was feeling those glances on his shoulders.  He did not know that those were love glances.

We reflected upon this:

"Endeavour is not a struggle with Destiny.
It is rather a struggle to fulfill one's Destiny." (Rumi)

Cat boys spend most of their times endeavoring and they do it beautifully.  Now if only I could do a bit more ...  They sent kisses and best wishes!

Ciao everyone!

the day before

the naughtiness (when Ollie stayed out all night) they were developing their emotional capacities in order to reach their heavenly heights...I am going to refrain from describing the photos because they are self evident

except here where I like to highlight Ollie's stretched out leg that is so cute,

and here where I like to highlight Ollie's precious look examining a bit of his fur that had got caught on the wall when he was scaling it,

and here, where Mr Sweet Pants could not be more adorable trying to take a peek on the other side,

and here where he is saying that the noise was only his playful brother up there

so he can turn around

and watch his own bird!

It occurred to me that cats would make great employees in their anxiousness to go to work; however, we would have to put up with their independence and originality.

We reflected upon this passage from various corners of the courtyard:

"Sense-perception gives rise to desire, desire to will, will to action, and action again to sense-perception. This chain ever repeats itself, and so the powers of thought, memory, reason, and the emotional capacities are evolved in spirit. These power and capacities of spirit, expressed in individual human beings, constitute human characters.

Through these successive evolutionary steps, spirit develops characters having Divine attributes. The positive, creative aspect of God is reflect in them. Individuality is derived from expression in individual form. Self-consciousness accompanies individualised character, and the being thus endowed has the potentiality of rising to the knowledge of God."  Compilation,Abdul Baha

Wishing you all an outstanding Thursday.  Cat boys sent kisses and best wishes!

Ciao everyone!

we are sending cat boys to language school

Some patches in the back jungle of our condo don't look too shabby, enough cheery yellows to allow us to focus our minds on the good.

It is very calm outside this morning.
Though I got up at 5 a.m. I did not go out for a cat walk.

This was unrelated to the little drizzle that was coming down making it ideal cat boy weather, oh, the excitement of little droplets hitting their fur and the dashing off to hiding places for safety and protection!
This was related to the fact that a certain ginger cat who shall be left unnamed did not come home last night keeping both kitty parents up all night.  We decided that he was stolen and yet we walked around the neighborhood for hours hoping to find him.  The night before the other kitty boy with stripes who shall remain unnamed returned home at 12:30 instead of the usual 9:00.
They both have watches. They both know the rules!  They know how to meow in different tones but no words yet.

Today they are resting...either reflecting upon their actions or perhaps plotting.  I suspect the latter because our cat boys are plotters.

Here is Sweet Pants in his room.

Here is Puffy Pants in his room.

Searching for something to reflect upon I came across this passage which is perhaps unrelated to the post but it made me feel good because I find it important to notice beauty around me, both spiritual and physical.

It behoveth the craftsmen of the world at each moment to offer a thousand tokens of gratitude at the Sacred Threshold, and to exert their highest endeavour and diligently pursue their professions so that their efforts may produce that which will manifest the greatest beauty and perfection before the eyes of all men.  ("Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá", sec. 127, p. 145)

We wish you all brightness and furry beauty!  Kitty kisses will be sent when they wake up.

Ciao everyone!