Exhaling summer ...

Autumn for us is like a deep exhale after a summer of heat, a delicious pause before inhaling a new season of hustle and bustle, family and friends, peace and contemplation, or whatever else.  Cat boys really like this season...the crisp weather delivers in metered doses, cool mornings, warmer and warmer daytimes, cool and cooler evenings.  It is the season of games, and who knows more about games than cat boys.

Last Sunday was a typical autumn Sunday for our part of the world...a cool morning where heat was carried by quanta of light that reflected off the air and dust particles, Gussy felt the electricity and so did Ollie from the look of his wild mane.

We three decided to go to the back yard of delights after moseying around here and there, a private location where we step into the pretend kingdom. 

 "Let us sit", I said, and that is what they did!
Sure, there was the urge to grab them, wrestle them, and give them kisses on their funny faces, but I had to admire beauty from afar as one admires it in the wild, from afar, no touch.

 The slender Augustus who was weighed at 15.5 pounds of delicious loveliness was trying to think of something profound while the Big Orange was trying to read Augustus' mind by pointing his ears backwards towards him.

Then they connected by looking at each other but ears pointed back to cover a good distance around them!  Fascinating!

 Then they showed me their profiles, the jaguar and the lion...yes, your mommies were jags and lions.

To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
~John Keats, Sonnet XIV

THAT WAS WHAT WE DID.

Then they looked away from each other,

and right back towards me.  I wanted to giggle but did not.

Finally the slankster got up and with stretched strides

that turned into a hurried gait

ran towards me.

The squirrel was looking from above

when we were walking back home.

I was thinking about inhaling and exhaling, one can say so much about it both physically and spiritually and emotionally.

Learn how to exhale, the inhale will take care of itself.  ~Carla Melucci Ardito

I frequently need to exhale and I have noticed that cat boys really love exhaling, and they look awfully cute when they do that.

Please exhale...happy Tuesday everyone...FALL is here! Cat boys sent you their best wishes...

Ciao!

"richness of conscious life"

"I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past." --Virginia Woolf

Last Sunday morning we had some moments together on the patio.  The sun was shining gently and the little bit of nature that we had around us only tweeted...no loud sounds.

I invited the two Misters to sit on the wall for snacks and story telling while I planned to get busy with some repotting of plants.

I had to get my hands out of the soft dirt within minutes to pick up the camera because the delightful crunchy sounds and scrunchy faces the cat boys were making were too precious to ignore.

Here's Gingerella, so pleased, and so much like a baby tiger,

 and even more so was Mr Sweet Pants who had laid down his tail on a straight line.

 Here are the plants that have since been repotted into different pots.

 Here are the cat boys after snacks, each finding his private corner for observation and contemplation.

 We can never get enough of cyclamen.

 Mr Puffy Pants, Gingerella...

 Mr Sweet Pants...

"I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past." --Virginia Woolf

A friend sent me the above quote a few days ago and I saved it because so much of it rings true with me, and yet not entirely as I believe that I can appreciate the present moment sometimes quite fully, other times not.  Perhaps this is what Niels Bohr meant when he spoke of the "richness of conscious life".

Are you aware of the state of richness of your life or do you realize it later in time?

Cat boys made many kisses that they blew out in the air for you!  Enjoy!

Ciao!

furry dawn breakers....

4 a.m. this morning Gingerella used all of the lines and meows that he had memorized, and I replied to each one, eyes closed, until he jumped on the bed in the way that a lion jumps to get his prey.

I told him in plain English that I was not going to get up until 5, and he listened!!! True, he spent the next hour galloping from corner to corner but at least he had accepted that we were not to go out until 5 a.m.

4 a.m. and 5 a.m. are about the same when one is awake but I try to delay getting out in the dark because a certain slanky cat, Mr Sweet Pants, likes to go out and find an alley cat to fight with. 

This morning we got out, not until after five, and walked in the lighter areas of the complex.  We went down the street, up the street, and back down the street and up the street a few times and listened to various sprinklers come on and go off.  Sometimes we'd see a dog on a leash, a real treat for the cats.

When it got lighter, much lighter,

the cat boys came indoors for num nums and I thought it was a good thing to let them stay indoors for the rest of today since I had a busy day ahead.

Here is Mr Sweet Pants after his morning excursions and nums,

looking a little sleepy!

Here he is down on the second floor, relaxing on one his several lounging areas, and watching

his brother, Mr Puffy Pants, who had fallen on his back.  We did not know if he had been boxing a lot and was pretending that he was knocked out or if he was just plumb relaxed.

(PS-The ladder against the wall is not tacky decor although it feels that way given the number of months it has been there...it is just left over from some work done that I need to finish.)

Gazing into his hazel eyes I noticed that sleep was about to come.

Yup, it is sleep....

and here are his Puffy Pants....

beautiful puffy pants!

How do you break your dawns?  Do you like dawns?

I find dawn time fascinating as many of us traverse from the sleep world into this one...it is truly a fascinating experience.  I am frequently accompanied by two furry cats, they pull me out of my dreams and I wake up in-between two places! 

Cat boys studied this while I was at work, I am sure:

"Now there are many wisdoms to ponder in the dream, which none but the people of this Valley can comprehend in their true elements. First, what is this world, where without eye and ear and hand and tongue a man puts all of these to use? Second, how is it that in the outer world thou seest today the effect of a dream, when thou didst vision it in the world of sleep some ten years past? Consider the difference between these two worlds and the mysteries which they conceal, that thou mayest attain to divine confirmations and heavenly discoveries and enter the regions of holiness.

…

All these states are to be witnessed in the Valley of Wonderment, and the traveler at every moment seeketh for more, and is not wearied. Thus the Lord of the First and the Last in setting forth the grades of contemplation, and expressing wonderment hath said: "O Lord, increase my astonishment at Thee!" ..."(Seven Valleys)

Cat boys sent you best wishes for a happy weekend and promised to send you pawfuls of kisses.

Ciao everyone!

september 29th, backyard with the catboys....

September came to a rapid close this year, or is it the same each year?
Sunday morning I decided that I did not have new pictures of the cat boys this week so I walked towards the back of the complex hoping that some furry creatures would follow me.

The stretched out one, followed me like a jaguar, and I was happy to see him high on that wall.

Rapidly he scaled down the white stucco surface,

so quietly that I did not even hear the usual thump. I was looking at his shadow wondering if it would confuse him, that shadow that closely followed him on the wall.  Gingerella, who was down at my feet, was looking intently. He did not know if it was one or were there two cats coming towards us.

They kissed as the French do, one side

and then the other!

I thought it would be good to get them to sit and reflect a bit; in fact, thinking about it this could be why they have been a bit on the wild side lately.

Mr Sweet Pants quickly sat on the neighbor patio wall

while the orange one ran to the dirt and rolled on his back.  Less surprised I could not be.

I asked him to try again

while Augustus closed his eyes 

and finally, I had two rascals, who had assumed a good posture of reflecting.

We reflected on this:

O Son of Existence!  

Remember Me in My earth that I may remember thee in My Heaven. 

Thus may our eyes delight therein.

(The Hidden Words)

I had been thinking the other day about what things/places I remembered or not and why, and instantly felt a little sad that some places did not leave an impression on me.

Cat boys wished you a happy beginning to October.  They sent you pawfuls of kisses with little purrs.

When colors intensify....

it means fall is arriving.  When the heat of days get interrupted with cool bursts, that too for us is a sign of fall's arrival.  When light particles land lightly on the earth instead of beating down with force, that counts as fall too.  There is also the magical change in colors, which is caused by a host of seemingly unimportant factors, changes in amount of light, changes in acidity, quite a marvel indeed...

Well, fall was in the air that morning last weekend even though it did not look it.  We three had gone for a stroll in the morning. The surroundings were quiet, only little sounds of nature could be heard, truly an oddity for being in a big city in a condominium complex.

Cat boys were doing their thing, which consisted mostly of listening, sniffing, and observing.  I also think that they spend a great deal of time plotting but disguise it with their cuteness.
I was mostly observing them and the surrounding but felt rather unfocused, a frequent experience after being intensely busy for a long while.

Ollie was sitting like a Gingerella, perky, plump and pretty.  I could not read his mind but his face told me that he had a lot of mischievous plots arranged in a certain order in his head.

Augustus, the Sweet Pants, had sighted something on the wall and had the

urge to investigate.  His springiness made me snickle.

His jump startled Gingerella who instantaneously showed his Vulcan ears.  Certainly, this has to be a clever Vulcan cat but in fact he is not because he has many emotional outbursts, and we know that Vulcans are in control of their emotions.

The neighbor's geranium was particularly red, and miraculously has been the same size all summer (it is not fake),

and these leaves were particularly purple.

When colors intensify....so do our emotions and and mental acuity.  This really is a state and a season to enjoy and embrace.

I asked the red one to choose a reading for reflection and he chose this:

“‎"The more we search for ourselves, the less likely we are to find ourselves; and the more we search for God, and to serve our fellow-men, the more profoundly will we become acquainted with ourselves, and the more inwardly assured. This is one of the great spiritual laws of life." 

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, February 18, 1954)” 

― Shoghi Effendi

I like this quote because it states a certain truth that is mostly unrealized.  On the other hand, I suspect that Ollie bringing this to my attention means that he wants to be served platters of tuna morning and night, and I am not falling for that no matter how much I become acquainted with myself.

Cat boys sent you pawfuls of kisses with deep meaning.  Enjoy everyone!

Ciao!

the moments that count....

Ollie, whom shall be called Blondie today, reminded me that our last blog post was a month ago!

Augustus, whom shall be known as the Stripey today, was somewhat astonished at his brother's ability to keep time!
I too shared his astonishment but in an expected way.

We have been here and there, the cat boys usually accompany me to soften the rough edges of each day and show me the softer moment within each moment.

In the patio one weekend in August Stripey indicated that he had his eyes on Blondie.

Blondie meanwhile wondered how he could escape that gaze unnoticed.  Actually, this happens to be one of his daily goals.

Patio moments are pleasant refuge from the wild world outside...but in fact, the cat boys were telling me that the crazy wild world outside was embedded within moments that had to be counted.

I marveled at their wisdome...mostly Augustus'

because during most conversations Blondie keeps busy playing, this time on my lap,

in that carefree way only cat boys are familiar with.

We were surrounded by waves of light

that shone through us all.

The post would be way too long if we included one month's worth of reflections..so we let it go.  But that last day on the patio we thought about this: