The Art of Zen Living

Today’s post was going to be a fantastic journey through the ever changing flux and flow we find within the eternal and unchanging present moment.  I know that sounds flippant, but I can’t think about it too hard or my brain seems to want to turn itself inside out.

That cute little baby?  Her name is Grace, and she’s my niece.  She really knows how to stay in the now.  She’s my little Zen Baby for sure!

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For the past week or so, I’ve been watching my friend’s kitten for her. I’ve been working with this little kitten, teaching her some different things, my cats have been teaching her different things, and while she’s very stubborn, she’s picking some things up. The kitten’s name is Starr, and she’s half Sphinx (hairless) and half domestic short hair. This is the first in a series of posts about the lessons I’m learning from my cats.

What I didn’t expect was to learn so much from this kitten. Today, I’m just going to talk a little about Starr’s concept of things and ownership. Or, more precisely, her total lack of this concept. My cats understand very little about ownership, but even as adult cats, they have some idea of the concept - they’re territorial. At first, the kitten was allowed into the common areas, kitchen, living room and bathroom, but the lanai was off limits with the exception of using the litter box. Same with the bedroom. Those areas “belonged” to my cats. It didn’t take long for them to decide that Starr wasn’t much of a threat, and allow her access to the entire kingdom (in as much as a 1 bedroom apartment can be considered a “kingdom”).

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