On being a cat...

After over an hour of trying to decide what to write about I’ve decided (as I always do in this situation) ­­­to just write. So this may well be a bit of a ramble as I have no idea what is going to come out at this point - I'll know in a few minutes though when its done.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with a bit of rambling in my opinion although I have been getting some strange looks recently as I walk down the road muttering to myself.

Being focused is fine, but how limiting it can be. Focus by its very nature means concentrating on just one or two things and when you do that you forget to absorb all the wonderful stuff that is happening around you. Increasingly I find that it’s getting harder for me to focus. Some of it is that I’m tired of going over the same old issues in a world that really never seems to change very much; or at lest if it does it’s only in small increments. The EU debate, ISIS, immigration, Trump, cures for illnesses, warnings about illnesses, child abuse. Of course all of these are very important but they require focus to work out what you think and feel about them and I don’t always have the time, or rather the inclination, to think that hard.

Today is Meditation Day, well it is in America but I don’t mind borrowing it for a day or so. Now there are some forms of meditation that require you to focus on a single thing – a thought, an idea, black light, an apple. I prefer to focus on nothing and let everything wash into me and take me over. I’m not even sure it’s meditation but listening to the wind and birds, that train horn in the distance, somebody moving their wheelie bin down the alley with the chug, chug of the plastic wheels, a piano being played somewhere across the way – well it sets me adrift and from there I am free to simply enjoy the experience and live in those unfocused moments without concern.

I have a friend who takes lots of photographs which capture the essence of the moment but are intentionally out of focus. You can either look at them and try to work out what is going on, or you can choose to just absorb them and let their meaning wash into you. I choose to absorb and try to become part of what I am looking at. The photo above is one of his. I hope that he doesn’t sue because I didn’t ask to use it.

Anyway, that’s enough of my ramblings for one day. I’m off to stop thinking for a while and let myself just be. It’s the closest I’m ever going to get to being a cat.