Removing Strangeness From the Heart....

We were spending moments together..the light fell on us in round bubbles.

The squirrel considered himself near and at home and thought to stop and smell the roses so to speak.

Mr Sweet Pants felt that nearness and simply looked,

at least for a moment or two before the cat inside of him woke up.

Mr Puffy Pants was not to be distracted by such lovey dovey things,

he wanted to pounce and hug that squirrel or maybe just teach him a lesson.

We reflected on this:

O friend, the heart is the dwelling place of eternal mysteries, make it not the home of fleeting fancies..Thou comest from the world of holiness, bind not thine heart to the earth; thou art a dweller in the court of nearness, choose not the homeland of dust.  (Hidden Words)

Cat boys enjoyed their reflection and reported that they would continue with the squirrel chases!  They sent their best wishes for this Wednesday and many many cat kisses!

Ciao everyone!

Just for records...

Augustus came to us in August but he was born in July.

He is a remarkable mix of augustness and sweetness plus a good dose of contrariness only on certain days of the month or certain hours of the day.  He shows his sweetness privately because he does not want other folks to think that he is a pussy.

Contemplating, learning and discovery give him joy, and for that we have called him Mr Sweet Pants.

Ollie has a liking for comfortable Puffy Pants, hence the name Mr Puffy Pants.  His chosen name has French roots, Olivier, though he has no French traits at all. He eats herring like a real Swede, does the step dance on our stomachs like an Irish, and spends a good deal of time plotting, like Cato in Pink Panther.  For a while when he was younger he insisted to be called Chief Puffy Pants and we obliged.  Our Chinese neighbor calls him Olive and tries to rub her hands on him for good luck!  Olive finds this very strange but he is usually game.

When he is focusing he looks like a vulcan cat, a cute vulcan with super powers.

Augustus glanced at Ollie who was exerting himself mentally with sweet love expressed in his face.

Early this morning we found ourselves ONE squirrel, a young one.  This one did not seem to mind wandering in paw distance of Ollie although Ollie minded that.

The two boys found this mildly unusual

while I found it greatly unusual.  I wondered how far the squirrel was going to go

before the orange one would no longer take it.  The squirrel because a shadow at that very moment.

Ollie changed his spot and in no time the game resumed.

The cat boys wished to reflect upon the Names of Ahura Mazda and see if there was one called Sweet Pants and one called Puffy Pants; and so I read to them from the Avesta:  (I know some might find it odd that our cat boys are initiated into the mystical and divine; frankly, we are puzzled too but we think it is better not to ask too many questions.)

Then Zarathushtra said: 'Reveal unto me that name of thine,

O Ahura Mazda! that is the greatest, the best, the fairest, the

most effective, the most fiend-smiting, the best-healing, that

destroyeth best the malice of Daevas and Men…

Ahura Mazda replied unto him:

'My name is the One of whom questions are asked, O holy Zarathushtra!

'My second name is the Herd-giver

'My third name is the Strong One

'My fourth name is Perfect Holiness.

'My fifth name is All good things created by Mazda, the offspring

of the holy principle.

'My sixth name is Understanding;

'My seventh name is the One with understanding.

'My eighth name is Knowledge;

'My ninth name is the One with Knowledge.

'My tenth name is Weal;

'My eleventh name is He who produces weal.

'My twelfth name is AHURA (the Lord).

'My thirteenth name is the most Beneficent.

'My fourteenth name is He in whom there is no harm.

'My fifteenth name is the unconquerable One.

'My sixteenth name is He who makes the true account.

'My seventeenth name is the All-seeing One.

'My eighteenth name is the healing One.

'My nineteenth name is the Creator.

'My twentieth name is MAZDA (the All-knowing One).

Much to their astonishment there were no such names in the list, no Mr Puffy Pants or Mr Sweet Pants and I was actually relieved.  We shall search more later they meowed.

Cat boys made you lovely wishes and sent them to you with pawfuls of kisses....Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Ciao!

PS- incidentally this post was from another recent Wednesday that was like this Wednesday but I decided to post it later to remove the time dimension from our daily experience.  It is all fun no matter when it happened.

Geography of Souls

Away for two weeks, yesterday I arrived. As our car pulled in by the curb that cool and sunny morning I heard the familiar meow meows of the cat boys.  As I got out I felt that I was the blank piece of jigsaw puzzle that fell right into its spot.

Life was a bit of the same and a bit different in my inside.  I had left to visit my mom who was sick, rather seriously, and spending time with her each day I felt my soul stretched to places unfamiliar for some time.

The cat boys were interested in showing me around, we noted the bird in the neighbor yard, and the house behind is the cat house with 6 big cats.  I know the cat mom and we try to keep our fellows away from each other.

The cat boys took me down the leafy path towards the back, we sniffed the air,

examined the light, noted the temps and the aridity of our surroundings.  The sounds too were crisp, not just the light and the leaves.

Mr Puffy Pants was seemingly more fluffy and yet more slender, kudos to MrLittleJeans who did not give them heaps of treats the way I do.

Mr Sweet Pants was sweeter than ever if such a thing could be possible.  He showed me himself and his clear gorgeous shadow too.

I decided to share with them something I had read that I was examining in my own self...

"And as there are inhabitants that roam the surface of the planet, sometimes alone on windswept sand dunes, sometimes congested in the city streets, so too the countryside within contains some interesting folk.  Indeed, there are multitudes within us, as well as without.  Most live and die unnamed, unknown. For multitudes are hard to become acquainted with, as the most well-meaning would hasten to point out.  Dare we count our myriad doubts and fears, question their intricate lineage and try to disentangle ourselves from their enigmatic control?  Do we care to encounter our stranger prejudices, learn how they hide themselves under our erudition or become acquainted with their characters?  Perhaps it is just as well that the multitudes within us remain nameless, that we send a cheque in their direction once in a while, that we give them a nod of acknowledgement in order to avoid taking them into account every day."  (Four on an Island_Nakhjavvani)

Augustus left to find a private corner for meditation, of course after he sent you kisses.

Ollie sat down to think and he too sent kisses.

I felt that I was different in some ways...forced to be more of myself because I was the observer in a hospital room that contained four ill people, ill to varying degrees, for twelve days for twelve hours each day.  Most of those hours were spend looking at each person, looking at those who came and left, finding the hidden humor of each moment and making sure that nothing but humor would dare express itself in the neighborhood of those ill folks.  They laughed hard, I am sure harder than they would have had they been well, they were irreverend and unmindful of their relative conditions.

I related to the passage above but in a different way, I became aware of the multitudes within that were stronger and more delightful, that had no prejudices.  I don't want to be there again but I have found hope that the worst of situations can still be the best.

We all missed our cyber buddies...good to know you are all where you are.  Stay healthy and enjoy the cat kisses.

Ciao everyone!

Simply...

Moments slip by too fast and it is only in the company of the cat boys that that I find the dimensions of time. I am sure you know what I mean.  The space of time has to be filled with something sweet.

So it was with immense pleasure that busy as I was I stood still for some minutes and gazed at Mr Sweet Pants who winked at me that faithful afternoon.

He hadn't been in that spot long enough when his naughty brother Ollie had to walk over with his musical gait to check that specific section of the cement courtyard.

Ollie plopped himself on the ground and rolled back and forth pretending to be testing its hardness and warmth while in fact he just wanted to be near Gus,

to be in his space and time.

Naturally Gus pretended to not be aware of this big furry orange cat in his vicinity

which prompted Ollie to sing out loud so he would not miss him.  I was impressed.

Ahem...one satisfied lion cat...I wanted to chuckle at his facial expressions but held back.

It became time to leave, two cat boys on their way to explore the boundaries of their kingdom.

I had many thoughts and yet no specific thoughts that I wanted to be bothered with.  I just wanted to be for some moments, like them, gentle and grand.

"Simply, the thing I am shall make me live."  (William Shakespeare)

Cat boys sent kisses and their best wishes for your days.

Ciao everyone!

Shadows....

Though generally I try to explain what had transpired between the cat boys in our blog posts today I felt that this step was not necessary.

I knew that afternoon when we walked outside that the cat boys wanted to show me their grand inner selves. Mirrors they are not interested in, the light outside reveals all.

I knew exactly what the next moments would be, how I would feel when I would let my eyes follow their moves here and there, follow them and follow their reflections.

Mr Puffy Pants, who shall be called Honey Badger today, walked with his relatively heavy looking  shadow

and Snussle Guss accompanied his dynamic shadow

that stopped and then got stretched out

in various ways.

I admired their ability to see themselves in all honesty, the big cats inside that were participating in our lives as little pets.

Even the dry branch with a few dry leaves had an inside that showed in the revealing light of sun.

I tried to look a little at my inside and then I did not want to do that any more.  I wanted to be better, more refined.  I lacked so many things it seemed.

They wondered about in full honesty

and courage.

Here and there the rays of light played through the molecules and the leaves and the branches.

Here and there the snussle cats played sometimes two of them and other times four.

“Where there is much light, the shadow is deep” 

(Goethe)

Cat boys made many kisses and blew them in the air for you with their best wishes...be brave..be lions!

Ciao everyone!

I am not a cat whisperer I have come to find out...

I am not even sure how to begin this post it has been so long, or so it seems. I think I only managed to take a cursory look at a few posts twice this week, we all felt deprived of the company of our friends we have gotten so used to seeing and saying hi to.

It is good to be busy...moving...alive...challenged...flexing and adapting...doing and thinking. And on this gorgeous day I am not going to suggest that one should balance things.  Let them remain unbalanced because surely they will balance eventually.

I have not been playing cat paparazzi much these days because doodle 1 and doodle 2 have been unmanageable. I am so glad I did not quit my job for that position of lion handler in the circus. Let's face it I was considering myself a cat whisperer and that I am not. When I know something it is usually because one of the two fur balls has spelled it out for me, now I find this.

On that particular afternoon I was trying to round up the cats by the neighbor's front door because she wanted a picture of the boys to send to her friends in England.  I called Mr Puffy Pants but did not share with him that this would be a photo shoot.

His round body took little ballerina steps towards me

and down the side of the wall

and with a hop he landed on the

ledge, never making a sound that a human could hear

only a sound that another superior CAT could hear.  Mr Sweet Pants turned around with that 

sort of a look that was uninterpretable to me.

He looked.

Then the other one looked.

Then Mr Sweet Pants burst into singing out loudly, something neither of us expected.

I finally called the meeting asking them to assume the posture of listening but having not specified which way to gaze I got their backs, and those backs to me are as adorable as the fronts

so I read:

"Say: Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God." (The Summons of the Lord of Hosts) 

Cat boys enjoyed the reading and reflected on it while sniffing plants. They sent you happy weekend wishes and many many kisses.

Ciao everyone!