our grateful atoms....

Our favorite holiday is a couple of days away and we are focused more than usual on gratitude and thankfulness.  These thoughts were floating through my mind as I was watching the cat boys in the back over the weekend.  

The temperatures were cool, the sun was shining bountifully and two cat boys had chosen our company over the company of many other creatures.

One honey colored cat loves to be hand fed while the other doesn't.  No surprises there.

Gingerella was roaming on the neighbor patio walls like a big lion,

sometimes staring at me,

sometimes checking his brother, Mr Sweet Pants

who had re-discovered an old lounging spot out of human reach.

Laziness,

and humor prevailed

under the filtered sun beams.

I marveled at the variety of greens and was thinking of chlorophyll and thanksgiving and gratitude, of that essence of gratitude where the molecules of chorophyll are aware of the role of sunshine in their lives....whew!

There is an inner space that is closer to the infinite than our outer selves, our minds, thoughts, our analytical rational brain, and I thought how nice it would be to be able to sense gratitude within that space.

We three wish you a Happy Thanksgiving within your core.

Ciao everyone!

An Enlightened Sunday

Sunday was a day of weather delights as the autumn sun decided to burn off the early morning clouds, and cool, clean air filled the spaces of this town.  Birds were chirping and hopping, squirrels were running about, and I had two cats wanting to show me around. 

The morning felt so good that thinking was not allowed.  Sometimes I led and they followed, and other times they led and I followed.  Here's what part of the morning looked like.

Mr Sweet Pants checking on me while Mr Puffy Pants continues to scan the area.

While standing around we three were thinking of this:

“According to Vedanta, there are only two symptoms of enlightenment. The first symptom is that you stop worrying. Things don’t bother you anymore. You become light-hearted and full of joy. The second symptom is that you encounter more and more meaningful coincidences in your life, more and more synchronicities. And this accelerates to the point where you actually experience the miraculous.” ~Deepak Chopra

While cat boys feel quite enlightened all the time I have to admit that I don't...those moments of enlightenment are scarce and yet, I know that they will become more frequent with practice, especially with the help of our two Swami catboys, Swami Olliekenanda and Swami Sweetiepantskenanda.

Cat boys wish you enlightenment with pawfuls of kisses!

Ciao everyone!

Beauty Itself....

The wind was brisk and we saw the leaves falling down, not like rain that falls perpendicular to the earth unless strong winds are sweeping them away but sort of like kettle cooked potato chips falling from the skies.  We heard them falling and I am not sure why that was so mesmerizing.

There was a certain energy in that back yard.  Two squirrels hugged the pine in tight grips and Gingerella was under the impression that he could hide behind the agapanthus plant.

Mr Sweet Pants who was eating treats was examining the situation with wide eyes!

I looked above and saw the golden pile of dates hanging off the palm tree, way up high, a very nice treat for the squirrels for the days to come.

Moments later, and while I was staring at the palm being blown around I found Mr Sweet Pants high on the pine, it seems that he wanted the pair of squirrels that were stuck on that tree.

Here's the Sweet Pants high up,

then jumping across,

and then landing on the garage top.  I knew he would be up there for a while (because it is so pleasant there, I too have climbed there with a ladder), and so I started back to the condo.

On the way back I stood by the neighbor poinsettia from the last year to take a picture, and

Gingerella too stopped by to take a look.

That day we all practiced seeing Beauty Itself, pure and unalloyed...

“what if the man could see Beauty Itself, pure, unalloyed, stripped of mortality, and all its pollution, stains, and vanities, unchanging, divine,...the man becoming in that communion, the friend of God, himself immortal;...would that be a life to disregard?” 

― Plato, The Symposium

Cat boys send you purrs and kisses...happy november everyone!

Ciao!

one Sunday morning not too long ago...

To be frank, had someone told me ten years ago that I'd be sitting on a patio one beautiful Sunday morning doing brunch with two cat boys...I would have said, "whaaa"?

And now, here I am in the company of two cat boys, one Sunday morning.
This is how we live.

Mr Sweet Pants was both slanky and in good humor after eating his Tuna and Turkey Tickles.

He decided to sit on the patio wall and check the neighborhood from that vista instead of doing the rounds on foot.

The cyclamen had multiplied and thrived in the cool sunshine that our patio offered.

The rascal Gingerella, Mr Puffy Pants, who loves grass and so I make pot after pot of green grass,

was munching away!

Munch, munch, munch,, he made such a cute sound.

MUUUNCH!!!

He then decided to check my plate, which naturally is his plate.

I can only be filled with gratitude at this turn of events....

Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life. ~Rumi

Mr Sweet Pants and Mr Puffy Pants send their best purrs and best wishes and little kisses.

Ciao everyone!

When I tell my friends that

I am going away to Nebraska for a few days they all chuckle at my excitement!!!

What I love about visiting Nebraska is the direct contrast to the landscape that I leave behind for a few fast days.  You might know that the population of the Los Angeles area is greater than the entire population of Canada or of Australia.  That alone should tell you that people here live together in a social experiment.  We practice to live together without hurting each other, and that is all good...

but we do miss

the open skies, the clean air, the golden fields that have no complaints about how they were treated.

the roads that are actually clean and uncluttered with only the necessary number of billboards, no intrusion on the skies, marketing ploys kept to a minimum.

This is a tough place for a city dweller because we are used to orient ourselves using various benchmarks, something that is clearly missing here in the open fields.  The landscape changes all the time because these clever farmers keep doing things such as planting or plowing or harvesting and so it is easy to become disoriented, and the clouds come and go rapidly too.

Here is a field waiting to be harvested. The one above is done and maybe waiting to be seeded for another crop.

In my in-law's front yard this plant was growing as well as many other colorful ones. I fell in love with these leaves.

One day we drove over the Platte, serene and flat...I am only sorry that the Sandhill Cranes had already left.  You might know that these cranes migrate twice a year between Canada and the warmer southern lands but stop midway here to restore and replenish.

I was ready to strut the streets with my red shoes. 

Actually I wore these for the football game that we were to go to at the Lincoln Memorial Stadium...I knew that I would be readily accepted as a fan with these shoes.

This little fellow, Fugie is his name, is a California boy who chose to live in Nebraska.  He is very happy living with the in-laws.  He hunts various critters and is a lightweight bad ass when the situation calls for.

Tough as it always is to leave the clean blue-skyed state for the hustle and bustle of the City of Angels, we were most pleased to come back to the cat boys...one Mr Puffy Pants siting out on the patio wall,

and one Mr Sweet Pants waiting out on the front door steps.

Yup, life came back to normal rather rapidly here with these cat boys.

When I am going away to Nebraska for a few days my friends chuckle at my excitement!
When I return I chuckle back at their astonishment!

Catboys sent you pawfuls of kisses and their best November wishes!

Ciao everyone!