What follows was written immediately after meditating this morning. I typed it without looking at the keyboard. A total stream of consciousness piece. I have edited it only for spelling and punctuation.
I chose the wrong meditation from the list on iTunes today. It was the short two minute mindfulness of sound one. I wanted the 17 minute breath and loving kindness version. When it was over I heard Spats the cat beep at me (he’s not much for meowing). I looked down at him and decided that instead of playing the 17 minute meditation I would do Mindfulness of the Cat. I lay down beside him and at first he became playful and nibbled my arm and licked my fingers as he always does when he plays. Then he became quiet and restful.
I lay beside him being mindful of his breathing, of his twitching. I observed his tail and realized that what had always looked like fluid movement was actually a series of ripples . I believe it is the vertebrae in his spine moving in links that cause that effect close up. I watched as his tail made curls and released, and could discern no rhythm or reason for the movement. I watched his whiskers twitch ever so slightly and noticed that in his left ear he has whte spots instead of all pink. I never noticed that before. I noticed that he has about thirty white hairs that run up his nose – it’s not all black.
I noticed that he breathes more shallowly and faster than a human. I could see the dust on his silky black fur along his back. I was there to see his pupils dilate when he heard a creak in the house, and his head twitched and his ears moved - rotating like satellite dishes – to capture the location of the sound. He relaxed again and then his head popped up, eyes dilated and he was instatnly on alert, and in the swiftest, most elegant movment he was running toward the patio door. He sighted two sqirrels doing their acrobatic maneuvers in one of the trees in the yard. He watched them with keen interest as if there were nothing else in the world that mattered or even existed. Then they left and he waited by the window for their return for a bit. Giving up, he curled himself up on the rug and sat staring at me across the room. Just staring as if there were nothing else to be doing. I stared back in the same manner. Time did not exist. Thought did not exist. Just us two staring across the room occasionally slitting our eyes to say I love you.
I grabbed my laptop and began typing this entry without ever looking at my keyboard. Luckily my hands can still do that on occasion. I let these words flow from my mind into my fingers without editing, without caring, just capturing the thoughts as they were born.
Spats is now looking out the window at nothing in particular. I realize he is the pefect example of mindfulness. He gives eveything his fullest attention until he doesn’t any more. So simple. No time constraints (They still haunt me). No purpose – just being. He is here and he is alive and that is enough and that is all there is.
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