CAT

Do you have a familiar? I surely hope you do. Or that you did. Or that you will. The love of friends is the highest ideal. If your best friend is from a different species you are blessed indeed. My best friend  is a Bengal Cat, named Botticelli. I call him Botticelli... that is not what he calls himself. My brilliant teacher-friend, the physician Dr. Lalani, names his familiar Whisp-purr. Why we seek intelligent life in distant galaxies is beyond me. There are myriad forms of intelligent life beyond the human clutter pile right here on the blue green rock we are fortunate to live upon. We "two-legs" are walk-on  members of the cast. When you live with a feline you connect yourself to the great jaguar.... to the sabre-tooth.... to  the  Cat-Goddess Bastet to the great co-evolutianary Creation we participate in. Look into the eyes of Nadim's familiar Whisp-Purr. The nobility, the telepathy,  the precognition... the endless sense of play all are there. When a cat blinks at you it acknowledges your existence. Wait for Whisp-Purr to blink. Wait. Blink. Now you can carry on with your day.

DOVE & TWO SNAKES

Oh, in its moment afloat, a flake of snow is so alone. A water drop falls, in  the waterfall & belongs not at all.  Why comply with desire to rhyme in a rhyming line? An atom passes at the chance to act in random matter.

Oh, in its moment afloat... a flake of snow is so all alone. 

BASTET & THE LITTLE WHITE MOUSE

I live with a bengal cat named Botticelli. He hangs with me like my best buddy. When I look into his green eyes I am met with a mystery. He is both calm, reassuring & present & yet he is distant & self-contained. He can be cold-blooded & fully affectionate in the same time frame. He really is like a falcon. A predator who likes to snuggle. My friend Nadim lives with a black & white cat named Whisp-purr. What does Whisp-Purr think of once he has preened his long white whiskers & found the perfect spot on the Persian carpet in the sun? Food is a necessity to cats not an addiction. Play is essential. Napping. Taking it all in. I could go on. In fact Cats live for the pleasures I seldom allow myself. The ancient Egyptians venerated cats. They even had a Goddess to represent them…. Bastet. I think I am a member of that secret society. The secret society of cats.

BALANCE

The martial arts continue to teach me how to be in balance in this most precarious place. Aikido, Tai Chi, Karate, TaeKwon Do, Jujitsu, Ninjitsu. My Sensei Owen taught me how to be a dancer in the dance… a swimmer in the swim. I  thought Speed,Power, Endurance were the highest athletic ideals. He says the goals are suppleness, balance, flexibility. If you think about it those are the highest ideals of human existence. Feel a cat’s muscles… they are soft, pliable,  lean. Watch a sleepy cat awaken from his nap to fall immediately from a height. Is there anything more graceful… more efficient… more in tune with the surrounding world? They land on their feet every time. Two seconds later they are licking their whiskers, watching motes of dust sworling in the sunbeam. Cat’s are naturals. I aspire to embody their                     samurai insouciance. 

Whisp-Purr's World

The great insight I keep coming back to... human intelligence is limited. There are many types of intelligence. If we can get over our arrogance that somehow our intelligence is superior to say the intelligence of an ant farm, or a bee hive, a peregrine falcon, or a rain forest.... maybe just maybe we can harmoniously integrate ourselves into the great, graceful dance of Creation. In particular... I speak of the intelligence of the Cat. Cats live in the sixth dimension... or higher. They live in the world we merely glimpse in our dreams or in those rare altered states of transcendence that approach enlightenment. When  I ease back into my feline sense of felicity I discover clarity, focus, calm ease, sprezzatura, insouciance & the nonchalance of a fully trained Samurai. Cats live in the world i aspire to abide within. Welcome to Whisp-Purr's World.