My Companions on the Path to Joy
where I want to be
My home is a cottage in Maine situated on a hill surrounded by gardens. I look out over rolling hills patterned with fields and woods, coverd by an ever-changing sweep of sky. Each season brings color and delight: lilacs and the lupine of spring, summer roses opening their blooms to the sun, the blaze of leaves in autumn, and the crabapple dropping its red fruit onto the bright snow, completing the year’s full circle. This is my retreat, where I paint, write, and garden -- and reflect on my desire to discover the joy in everything around me. And if it alludes me elsewhere I know that I can always find it just by watching the cats playing by my cottage door. This book is about the cats who have been part of my life – during the calm times and the storms – and what they’ve taught me along the way.
a return home
Life delivers lots of lessons, big and small, that often arrive unannounced. I’ve learned to appreciate these messages, although it hasn’t always been easy.
Sometimes the lessons that I find most challenging turn out to be the ones I need most. At one time, I felt a deepening sense of despair – I had been feeling a deepening sense of despair –in which I questioned my own creativity and even my place in the world. Everything changed when I discovered a lump in my breast. Facing cancer suddenly jolted me into an awareness of how vital every moment is. I had known this before, but hadn’t fully realized it until then: that the best, and worst, of life requires living in the moment. This understanding helped me to feel a new sense of peace and happiness. Problems that had seemed so huge before no longer mattered.
During this period, I found special comfort in my cat Malai. I believe she was truly sent to me for that short time. As if guided by something mysterious, Malai leapt onto me. It was then that I was first alerted to my condition. Returning weary from each medical leave, I always found her waiting by the door to welcome me home. When my mind, body, and spirit were strong again, she was gone… perhaps in search of someone else to comfort.
stillness
Have you noticed the way cats can occupy a spot and make it so much their own? They are "there" with such a sense of belonging. I think it has to do with their complete and intense presence in any given moment. Trina is happy as a clam on her bicycle seat. She is "there" and nowhere else. She is not already thinking about where she would be happier, or where she had been happier in the past. I am starting to learn that for myself. Caught up in the little cares of my life, I look to Trina in all her "being threre-ness" to help me find my own "there" too.
wonder
I am shelling peas. We had a fine crop this year. The pods plunk into one bowl and the peas ping into another. Guinevere thinks it's great fun to fish over the rim with a dexterous paw, hooking one pod after another and flipping them out onto the floor. Yawning, she stretches and places one paw over an errant pea. I reach down and the fine bones of her leg with one finger, touch the soft leather pads, one triangular and four perfect ovals, and stroke the silky fur. I am filled with wonder at the perfection of her body in all its awesome detail. Do we ever stop long enough to appreciate what's right in front of our eyes?
