Celebrating Interspecies Cohabitation Day in Everyday Ramblings

Tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of the day Carlo and Diego came to live here. I can’t believe it has been 4 years! The cats are certainly acclimated and are currently curled up together sleeping (mostly) in the actual cat bed I keep on the end of my bed. I keep an old towel on top that is easy to wash.

I do miss Sammy and Stella some days, particularly Sammy because he was with me so long. I find that hard to believe too. That I managed to put up with his wild cat man behavior for so long. He sure had his sweet side as wild men of all species are known to possess.

Saint Joe is jet skiing in Mexico this week, which leaves me with all the work. Friday we have our big annual computer upgrade. I am expected to work until 10PM after a long long week. Bleh.

The good news is that Saint Joe will be doing this next year. At least that is the plan.

And as next week is Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. I am taking Friday off as a vacation day and will have four days off in a row…

Many of my studio students have major shoulder issues so I tend to take it easy on the upper body but I was teaching wrists last week and that involved a little strengthening and Mrs. Sherlock told me on our walk a few days later that she had been sore. Not too sore, just enough to realize this upper body strength thing is something she needs to work on.

So this week I am teaching focused on the chest and all aspects of the heart, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

I had them start and finish flat on their backs with a rolled blanket along the length of the spine with their knees bent and heads supported to give a gentle lift to the chest. Then I made up a meditation that involved seeing mountains on a clear day and heartfelt compassion for all those making it through in California affected so profoundly by wild fires.

A number of them told me afterwards that they benefitted from the meditation and the class in general.

It doesn’t get better than that! I was so touched because I was truly genuinely myself, confused about the location of various mountains as I certainly was.

I was thinking about taking meditation teacher training with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach earlier this year but it was expensive and time consuming. Now I feel like, though I have ever so much to learn, I am doing okay with what I am sharing.

Before going to sleep last night I was listening to Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush talking about their book based on a number of conversations about death and dying called Walking Each Other Home.

Ram Dass had a major stroke 20 years ago and has aphasia and so speaking is still really a challenge for him. He said that figuring out how to say something is like going into a closet and trying on different outfits to figure out the one that fits the best and looks good.

He also said that he wants living with his death to be sadhana or spiritual practice for his students.

I do not think I will be there yet when it is my time to go, which I hope is after an exhilarating and engaged period in retirement!

But in the meantime there is work to do and chores and gazing with great affection at the two furry gray beings that totally rule my life.

Last updated November 13, 2018