And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day.
Gn 1: 31
Evenings come and mornings follow. It is a rhythm that beats as naturally as our hearts. In my little apartment, my small space in a great God-inspired world, Susie and Deliah have become a part of this rhythm as easily as the sunrise and sunset. They rest their heads securely on my lap or sleep comfortably at my feet. I find peace at the end of long days. And it is good. They hearken to the sparrow’s call outside the curtained window. They awaken my eyes and eyes along with theirs. And it is good. There is a spiritual symbiosis bonding us together that cannot be explained.
On a grand spring morning as it is today, you cannot do anything but marvel at God’s creation. Spring bursts from every speck of air outside. In bloom. In birds. In blossom. Easter, the key moment for Christian belief, rips open its darkened tomb and the world rejoices. We can see how good it all is.
On a grand spring morning, when the world is “mudluscious”, it can only be good. Exactly as God intended it to be. And that alone is cause to rejoice.
Showing posts with label cat spirituality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat spirituality. Show all posts
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
My God, My God, Why Have You Abandoned Me?
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Ps 22: 2a
These are powerful words. So powerful, they are remembered. Maybe not chapter or verse, but they are remembered. It is the utterance of human identification. A collective fear. A sometime in a lifetime moment.
I doubt that Deliah or Susie have processed their abandonment so long ago. They only sought food and warmth and shelter. Without the burden of thinking, they escaped the fears of their own making. Worrying about how they would eat next month or even next week.
How many times I have uttered that phrase. In different ways but with the same intention. How many times I have felt so alone that even God has walked out of the room. But I am not alone. We all suffer disappointments. Setbacks. Illnesses. Rents go unpaid. People get sick. Things don’t go the way that we want. Our loved ones hurt us. Hurt us again. We suffer sleepless nights worrying about the things that need to be put in God’s hands. Why have you abandoned us?
When I am suffering my angst, I need open my eyes. I need to notice God in the disappointments and in the despair. High school seniors running a dress boutique restore the dreams for needy girls to go to a prom or to a Sweet 16. Operation Fairy Dust is God walking into the room. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/nyregion/28about.html?ref=nyregion) A donor’s conference at the United Nations discusses the ways in which monies from around the world will help rebuild Haiti. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28sun1.html?hp) We can criticize the world for abandoning many places but can applaud it loudly when it resounds of God’s love. We are God’s response to the question.
When I am suffering my angst, I need to know I’m human. It’s all right to be fearful. It’s all right to feel alone. Christ sat in the Garden of Gethsemane and felt the same way. Christ got down on his knees and prayed. That’s all I need to do, too. A very human man was afraid and called out in his fear. When I do the same, I am heard, too.
Ps 22: 2a
These are powerful words. So powerful, they are remembered. Maybe not chapter or verse, but they are remembered. It is the utterance of human identification. A collective fear. A sometime in a lifetime moment.
I doubt that Deliah or Susie have processed their abandonment so long ago. They only sought food and warmth and shelter. Without the burden of thinking, they escaped the fears of their own making. Worrying about how they would eat next month or even next week.
How many times I have uttered that phrase. In different ways but with the same intention. How many times I have felt so alone that even God has walked out of the room. But I am not alone. We all suffer disappointments. Setbacks. Illnesses. Rents go unpaid. People get sick. Things don’t go the way that we want. Our loved ones hurt us. Hurt us again. We suffer sleepless nights worrying about the things that need to be put in God’s hands. Why have you abandoned us?
When I am suffering my angst, I need open my eyes. I need to notice God in the disappointments and in the despair. High school seniors running a dress boutique restore the dreams for needy girls to go to a prom or to a Sweet 16. Operation Fairy Dust is God walking into the room. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/nyregion/28about.html?ref=nyregion) A donor’s conference at the United Nations discusses the ways in which monies from around the world will help rebuild Haiti. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28sun1.html?hp) We can criticize the world for abandoning many places but can applaud it loudly when it resounds of God’s love. We are God’s response to the question.
When I am suffering my angst, I need to know I’m human. It’s all right to be fearful. It’s all right to feel alone. Christ sat in the Garden of Gethsemane and felt the same way. Christ got down on his knees and prayed. That’s all I need to do, too. A very human man was afraid and called out in his fear. When I do the same, I am heard, too.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Slow is as equally important as Fast.....
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
Jeremiah 31:10
I can’t remember the last time I sat and reflected on anything. Life has been just too busy. When my life becomes as fanatic as it’s been, it always leads me to the question, Is this what God wants?
Jeremiah’s passage reminds me of how often the Lord as my Shepherd metaphor is used and how apropos it is. I must appear as a lamb who has become separated from the rest of the flock. running aimlessly searching for the safety and warmth and protection of “my family.” When I think of my life in those terms, I already know the answer.
That’s the wonderful thing about Susie and Deliah as my role models. They do not do anything fanatically; I don’t believe the word is in a cat’s vocabulary. Oh, I have seen them run pass skidding across the wood floor and tumblesaulting onto the bed and spring boarding upon the dresser. That is not fanatic. Nor is it rushing. That is cat gymnastics. Afterwards, there is always a well-deserved nap.
Fanatic, in modern terms, probably has become nuanced by a frenzy of movement rather than motivation. Oh, I am sure there are but a few religious fanatics around, but fanatically fueled people abound. Unlike Deliah and Susie, society applauds those who accumulate wealth and measure success by appearance. An enormous amount of our time is spent devoted to those things while we neglect the more important aspects of what comprises a quality life: rest, relaxation, recreation and reflection.
It is already Holy Week and either my busy schedule or its effect on me has kept me from spiritually engaging in this very important remembrance of Christ’s life. Susie and Deliah, sleeping at my side, remind me that slow is as equally important as fast. I can choose not to rush. I can choose to rest between what has to be done. And not everything has to be done in one day. I can choose what is important and what is not.
I can always find gratitude in my day. If I only slow up long enough to be able to glance the blessings in between.
proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
Jeremiah 31:10
I can’t remember the last time I sat and reflected on anything. Life has been just too busy. When my life becomes as fanatic as it’s been, it always leads me to the question, Is this what God wants?
Jeremiah’s passage reminds me of how often the Lord as my Shepherd metaphor is used and how apropos it is. I must appear as a lamb who has become separated from the rest of the flock. running aimlessly searching for the safety and warmth and protection of “my family.” When I think of my life in those terms, I already know the answer.
That’s the wonderful thing about Susie and Deliah as my role models. They do not do anything fanatically; I don’t believe the word is in a cat’s vocabulary. Oh, I have seen them run pass skidding across the wood floor and tumblesaulting onto the bed and spring boarding upon the dresser. That is not fanatic. Nor is it rushing. That is cat gymnastics. Afterwards, there is always a well-deserved nap.
Fanatic, in modern terms, probably has become nuanced by a frenzy of movement rather than motivation. Oh, I am sure there are but a few religious fanatics around, but fanatically fueled people abound. Unlike Deliah and Susie, society applauds those who accumulate wealth and measure success by appearance. An enormous amount of our time is spent devoted to those things while we neglect the more important aspects of what comprises a quality life: rest, relaxation, recreation and reflection.
It is already Holy Week and either my busy schedule or its effect on me has kept me from spiritually engaging in this very important remembrance of Christ’s life. Susie and Deliah, sleeping at my side, remind me that slow is as equally important as fast. I can choose not to rush. I can choose to rest between what has to be done. And not everything has to be done in one day. I can choose what is important and what is not.
I can always find gratitude in my day. If I only slow up long enough to be able to glance the blessings in between.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
By The Grace of God I Am
But by the grace of God I am what I am
1 Cor 15:8
A weekend morning. Sleeping late. Striped sunbeams streaming in the window and if an artist’s brush captures this moment, Susie, Deliah and I slumber peacefully. We are undisturbed by alarm clocks or traffic or phones. It is a gloriously serene and quiet Sunday.
I have not always appreciated this silence—the empty spaces of times allotted for rest and reflection. Life was meant to busy oneself in. Now, life is different.
Susie’s and Deliah’s entry into my life provided me pause. Cats by their own design possess the wisdom to spend a great deal of time resting in order to have a great deal of time living.
Susie and Deliah descend from an ancestry revered by Egyptian Pharaohs who believed that cats had already experienced the rebirth that they, too, were about to embark on. Like many cat owners, the Pharaohs recognized what great companions cats would be in this journey. Likewise, the Egyptians bestowed upon one of their goddesses, Bastnet, the features of a cat, and believed she brought many blessings upon a household. An inscription on a pyramid in Thebes recognizes the respect and esteem that cats held in Egyptian society:
Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed…the Great Cat.
Each of us carries a little magic or a little wisdom or a little miracle in our pockets. Sometimes, we carry it quite unawares. I doubt that Susie or Deliah know how greatly they have influenced my life. Delivering God’s blessings through being exactly who we are is the blessing.
1 Cor 15:8
A weekend morning. Sleeping late. Striped sunbeams streaming in the window and if an artist’s brush captures this moment, Susie, Deliah and I slumber peacefully. We are undisturbed by alarm clocks or traffic or phones. It is a gloriously serene and quiet Sunday.
I have not always appreciated this silence—the empty spaces of times allotted for rest and reflection. Life was meant to busy oneself in. Now, life is different.
Susie’s and Deliah’s entry into my life provided me pause. Cats by their own design possess the wisdom to spend a great deal of time resting in order to have a great deal of time living.
Susie and Deliah descend from an ancestry revered by Egyptian Pharaohs who believed that cats had already experienced the rebirth that they, too, were about to embark on. Like many cat owners, the Pharaohs recognized what great companions cats would be in this journey. Likewise, the Egyptians bestowed upon one of their goddesses, Bastnet, the features of a cat, and believed she brought many blessings upon a household. An inscription on a pyramid in Thebes recognizes the respect and esteem that cats held in Egyptian society:
Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; thou art indeed…the Great Cat.
Each of us carries a little magic or a little wisdom or a little miracle in our pockets. Sometimes, we carry it quite unawares. I doubt that Susie or Deliah know how greatly they have influenced my life. Delivering God’s blessings through being exactly who we are is the blessing.
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