Aligning With Truth: Wisdom Cats Long To Share

JUNE 16 EDITOR'S UPDATE: Wishing a Happy Father's Day to all dads, as I remember the legacy left by my father, who loved all animals, birds, reptiles and "creatures" of the wild.

Photo Credit: My Story

An alley cat now sleeps on a mat outside my door every night.

I can guarantee that when I open the door in the morning, if I hadn't already fed him, he'll be waiting.

If I'm leaving out in the afternoon and he's in the yard, he runs to his spot to check to see if food is there...before I leave.

When my car pulls up in the driveway, and if I hadn't left his afternoon food out before I'd taken off, he comes running.

He doesn't make a sound most times, except when he wants to say, "Thank you," or when another alley cat tries to take his food.

He politely waits for me. Even after I place his food outside, he waits for me to move away before he goes to it.

He needs for me to feed him, but he's too polite to beg even when he's hungry...and he also doesn't want me to see him "sweat."

I love it.

I've come to love this alley cat, I now call, "Pi."*

Like these kittens, Pi is a grey tabby cat.

I'd discovered him when I began to hear creaks coming from the swing at night in the middle of winter.

Not daring to go out, I'd discovered Pi asleep in the swing in the early morning.

From that day, I began to leave food for him twice a day: soft food in the morning and hard food in the afternoons.

Since then, Pi has found his home. This makes me feel good.

Pi did not come empty handed though: he's brought with him lots of gifts.

I've learned that by observing him, I also can learn a lot about life.

Cats seem to exude balance and, in many ways, spiritual essence. Their mysterious ways also suggest the hidden wisdom they possess inside. Centuries ago, and perhaps even today, some cultures revered cats.  In ancient Egypt, for example, cats occupied a special place of recognition. (Cats in Ancient Eygpt.) 

Life can be tough for these alley cats (Read this and WEEP!), but somehow they find a way to survive. What impresses me is that even in their being homeless and shelter-less, these cats still maintain their pride, still carry themselves with dignity. They actually don't know any other way to be, so whether cats are housed in a home, or they are alley cats, they exude this dignity.

The alley cats also seem able to sense danger very quickly, and for sure, because of their circumstances, they  take time to trust. This is so unlike cats that are housebound.


When Pi started coming around, he'd cower behind bushes when I came out to feed him.
Now, he stands closer and observes me.

Sometimes, we have a stare-down: he looks silently at me and, in his doing so, I sense his gratitude. Apparently, I'm not the only one who learns something by looking into the eyes of animals. (The Wild Eyes of Galapagos.)

Without being able to tell me what he's feeling, Pi still is communicating.

By getting closer to me, he lets me know he trusts me.

When he meows at me, it's not a sound of distress, as when he's fighting off the other cats for his food. It's a soft sound that communicates gratitude

I can be a cat whisperer, but I'm not there yet. I just observe and enjoy the magic of our communication.

The thing I'm getting a lot lately from Pi and studying pictures of cats is that there are deep spiritual messages these animals wish to share:

Everything we need is within us.

Recognize this, and we can solve many of our life's "riddles."







When we wait patiently and with a positive, faithful attitude, everything we desire will come to us.
Pi demonstrates this precept, each time he waits at the door. He knows every day his food will come. No meowing for it.

He has the quiet assurance that it is coming.



"Be Still and Know"- Psalm 46:10

He has the faith: it is coming.
He has the wisdom to know: it is coming.

He sits and waits: it is coming. 

He knows the truth: It is within him.

I suspect the other alley cats began to observe his contentment during the time he spends with them, so they began to follow him.

But you know what? They, too, learned to leave well enough alone. They've stopped coming by to try to take Pi's food.

I never did anything to them. After all, if I can feed one cat, I'd love to feed as many as are hungry. But what happened is that when  Pi cried, and I went out, they ran away. After about four times of this happening, they stopped coming around.

Now, it's just Pi.** ( Be sure to read update below.)

The others aren't waiting around. They've moved on to other places to find  food.

This is wisdom! 

If you've read the book, "Who Moved My Cheese," by Spencer Johnson, MD, you would get the message that we should not get stuck going back to the same places to find our good. Some of us, humans, do exactly this, even when the source is all dried up.

Photo Credit: My Story

By observing cats and their ways, we can extrapolate the following:

1. Be Still and Know:  Everything we need is within us.
2. Good is there: Just keep trusting.
3. Focus on what we need: Patience and Faith will win.
4. Have confidence in self (your Soul): If you lose confidence in self, you lose everything because you lose connection to the within!
5. When your life is in transition: Do everything to maintain your dignity and embrace yourself fully in love. "This, too, shall pass." 
6. When one source dries up, move on: Don't keep beating a dead horse.
7. Start giving to life from where you are: the smallest will be appreciated by those who need help.
8. Be grateful for what you have: Doing so, you open up the door to all other possibilities 

We see clearly the demonstration of gratitude for what we already have with the bible story of Elijah and the poor widow with two sons to feed. (2 King 4). The widow only had a small jar of olive oil, and Elijah told her to gather as many containers as she could and pour the oil into them. The widow shut the door, and she and her sons kept pouring the oil into them. Once every jar was filled, the oil stopped flowing.  The widow then took the bottles of oil, selling them and getting the money she needed to feed herself and sons.

Gratitude allows us to be creative with what we have and allows us to multiply our resources, by allowing us to see new and different possibilities. 

Photo Credit:  Loba branca

But do we do this? No. We often are busy looking at our neighbors, seeing what they have and wanting those, too.  Placing an emphasis on what we lack leaves little room for gratitude.

Many believe black cats bring bad luck. It's about consciousness.

Let's change this focus.

Bless what you already have, first, then go deeper within for guidance as to how to dig for new "wealth." Don't look outside yourself.

Using this consciousness, Jesus multiplied five loaves of bread and turned water into wine.

Black cats get a bad rap! 

It's all about consciousness. It's all about knowing that you are enough for this journey of life and you have enough...and to spare.

That's the way of the cats.

Within them, unbeknownst to them, they have
a consciousness that moves mountains.

(Don't let anyone...no matter how close you think you are to them...interrupt your move to this new level of consciousness. You will
find distractors coming at you from many angles. Many of these people are unaware they are getting in the way of your good, as they are simply living their own lives with their own goals, values and agendas. So, it's  up to you to stay centered and focused about where you want to go.) 


Stand still. Go within and find the truth about you!

Namaste',
Che'

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TODAY...

I celebrate the spirit of my mother, Valda, who would have been celebrating a birthday today. As I wrote this blog post, I couldn't help remembering her because of her birthday, yet, I wondered if it were not the spirit of my father, Ivan, which had inspired and guided me to write it.

My father loved animals, reptiles, birds and all creatures of the wild; he spent his life around them near the Amazon Basin rain forest area of South America, where I was born and spent my early childhood. Ivan nurtured all creatures when they were ill, and to make a life for us, he exported them to zoos around the world.

 These beautiful birds are for you, Ivan and Valda: The cats can't touch them! 

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*NOTES:  
1. The name was adopted from the movie, "Life of Pi." I found the name, "Mr. Charles Barker," too much of a mouthful so settled for "Pi."
2. When I wrote the initial draft of this post, the other cats had stopped coming. Gradually, they began coming around again, and now they each come at different times of the day: in the early morning, then late in the afternoon. I've since learned to leave out different bowls of food for each of them.