Plateau

Featureless expanse -
no wind, no change, only me...
upon this plateau.

Wherefore should I go?
I came from there, I should know...
upon this plateau.

Wherefore should I go?
I am plainly lost, I know...
left, right, up, below.

The best thing when lost
as the Gospel says, "stay put".
Jesus will find me.

So I should...
I'll stay still.
---<--@

Weather the Storm

Hold on to yourself -
believe in what you believe
and do not despair.

You are who you are
and though you make these mistakes
the choice is still yours.

Learn from it.
Make the choice.
---<--@



You told the truth, Kristen, and you were right to do so... but be careful who you tell the truth to, for the world will seldom understand.

Your courage it will mistake for cravenness and your honesty for treachery.

Remain honest and brave. 

Weather the rising storm and hold yourself fast from within.

It is painful but you will outlast it.

For the fashions of this world are as fickle as it is fleeting...

Stripes, Patches, and Swirls

In diversity -
there is unity in cats.
This has always been...

Stripes, patches, and swirls!

Self-expression, being free...

Freedom is beauty.

Do we see

this freedom?

---<--@



Color for cats
is not a source of division
but a source of harmony!

It is said
in ancient cat lore
that when cats are conceived
in the eternal Mind of the All Creator,
each cat is allowed the initial freedom
to pick their own color and pattern
according to tribal affiliation
as well as each individual choice
so that no two cats are ever the same
because all cats existing in the dreamtime
have purposed this to be so -

Cats are diverse
and we see them as such
BECAUSE they have all made a decision
to agree to be as diverse
and to not respect
this diversity
for a cat is unthinkable
to any cat.

It is also said
that in the dreamtime
there are colors that exist in cats
that are not (yet) visible in this realm of twilight;
that only when our world fully awakens
to the reality of the Oneness in all living beings
that Justice shall be done
to the real beauty of the natural 
which is only reflected in this world
like it is to see through a looking glass dimly
when the peace of the natural in all things
shall be the natural in all things.
---<--@

Sharing a Beat

My Anne and I,
listening to my heartbeat -
sharing, belonging.

My Anne loves me,
loves the rhythm of my life -
how can I forget?

I am hers,
she is mine.
---<--@



An intimate moment
- with a true friend -
is held only for a moment...
but its value lasts everlasting.

Nemesis

There is a false self...
in all things, what should not be -
'tis all that undoes.

In persons, this is -
a rejection of being,
freely not being.

In nations, this is -
a rejection of freedom,
people not being.

It destroys
from within.
---<--@



If
Complacency vs Courage
equals
Old Compliant vs Old Defiant.

Then
Materialism vs Spirit
equals
Sold Glory vs Old Glory.

Nemesis.

Little Orange

I met her from work,

this little orange battler
come to inspire me.

She helps me improve.
Gives me time, care, and friendship
to better my scores.

I like her, you know.
Sometimes I like her too much.
I have to take care...

Her name I shall keep.
This little orange angel -
God bless you, you cat!

I'm her friend,
she is mine.
---<--@

Muzzle

Don't know why it is -
that cute muzzle, your meow...

(too much cuteness... too much!)
Just let me kiss it!

I kiss the muzzle -
that cute muzzle, I kiss it.
Because I love you.

That muzzle,
I kiss it.
---<--@


...you can kiss it.

What is a snout and what is a muzzle?

A snout is not a muzzle. A snout you can wrap your fingers around. A muzzle you can not.

Only cats have muzzles. Dogs have snouts. You can kiss both. But only cats have muzzles.

Enough said.

Paw

My cat's paw, I love.
It's my source of sure comfort,
in gentle moments...

'Tis hard to describe
in this haiku - the quiet,
the touch, the feeling.

Paw becomes
more than words.
---<--@

The Other 100%

A thought for you, 

from a friend -

What of greater-ness,
our most fundamental - one -
that which makes us, we?

Yea, which many made one,
which though many makes us one,
calling us today...

Arise then, the we,
born of many distinctions,
called of one spirit.

Arise to the times,
this most fundamental thought,
and let us be great.

I, you, we -
one, one, one.
---<--@



In Fareed Zakaria GPS,
it was asked one early morning
which segment creates the jobs,
the 1% or the 99%.

Let me share with you
my own thoughts about it.

My answer is neither.

It is innovation that creates work.

It is a spirit present in the 100%!

The power to innovate comes from this spirit.

Because what drives this innovation?

Care for the Republic.

A love for the nation
grown up from the soil
of a living knowledge of it
and a steadfast understanding
of it's truest labors upon the earth.

This particular love
drives the participation of the people
in their own progress and welfare,
sheltered by their own freedoms,
and defended forever by a Republic
dwelling in peace and amity with itself
and therefore, with all the nations,
under the guidance of heaven,
and the light of Providence Divine.

Care for the Republic!

It is America that creates the jobs.

Individuals contribute to it,
individuals reap from it,
but it is ONLY the nation
that guarantees it.

Break this one community apart
and all certainty falls away into chance.

By the way, Fareed - you rock!
---<--@

Make the words disappear 

into meaning - and understand.

Think them at thy heart, 

speak it out loud, 

live it at large.

(Belated Happy Birthday!)

Commitment

Commitment. I am.
Sitting through the pain, the pain...
this is better pain...

Determination.
Discipline. Courage. Spirit.
Death. Life. Choice. The Truth.

Healing pain...
now, now, now!
---<--@



Inspiration is
a necessary guide to my motivation
and long may she bless me with her light.

But
commitment is
the only force in the universe
that will propel forward my motivation
into the realization of my dreams.

I commit
because I now understand
I will never be content with inspiration alone
unless her light becomes forever mine
and we become one reality.

As every heart
must take this journey,
so should mine.

So I must and I will. 

For me,
this is commitment.

It is
the I must 
and
the I will
for me.

Sphinx

"Speak me stories I can taste and touch",

says my clever pet cat to my mind...

"Talk to me about the food. Talk to me about the feel.

Tell me how much you love me-ow."

---<--@

Due to the mostly itinerant nature of my life hitherto, most of the (pet) cats I've had the pleasure of being with are actually strays.

Hence, I do not have pictures of them but I love and remember them all nonetheless! 

My cat is a sphinx,
she likes to tell me riddles,
purring in delight.

She is quite picky
about answers, so I pay,
her with treats instead.

Then she naps,
satisfied.
---<--@



Love for Lower Creation

As Adam was asked by God
to name the creatures of the earth,
so are we who are his descendants
similarly called to possess in each ourselves
the same intensity of human ownership
for all the life of lower creation.

The human world and lower creation
are no more divided than the visible realms
are separated from the invisible ones.

We impress upon the soul of animals and plants,
the light of our understanding (how brightly or how dimly)
so that they become a reflection of our reality
and we claim their being freely as ours
by the strength of our love (how far or how fleeting)
so that they become a part of our eternity
even as we become part of God's.

- selah -

So where
do our beloved pets go
when their soul leaves the earth
and their bodies return to the ground?

They never leave.

They return to a place each in ourselves
and await the victory of all things in the LORD.

---<--@

The Loan

All knowledge is borrowed that we might obtain to the Truth
and work out in ourselves an understanding of all things.
---<--@



The mind is a cup
and with knowledge it is filled
until it is full.

It becomes useless.
Not because it is a cup.
Do you understand?

When you know,
you let go...

(...until the cup knows it is a cup.)

---<--@



Knowledge that is kept like a treasure rots,
cursing with blindness instead of blessing with sight

But knowledge that is given, in word, deed, and prayer,
instead of impoverishing the giver, multiplies the gifts.



For truth once gained is possessed forever
and understanding once obtained is forever endowed.

But all knowledge returns again and again to the LORD;
like a river, it runs; like a stream, it flows,
keeping all things, teaching all things,
bearing all things in hope.



So when you think about something, let go.

Let go, let go, and let go.

Let go until it all comes back to you by your letting go.

Then you will always have understanding.
---<--@

Seeking the Seeker

I seek the seeker;
the one who I am seeking;
the one of the One.

I am to my self
when self is empty of me -
I become my self.

Many, few.
Few, then one.
---<--@

Coming into your own sunrise -

What is
most important

is self.

Knowing this,
one knows we are many.

What is
most important to self
is true self.

Knowing this,
one knows we are one.
---<--@

Light Against Despair

I remember Night -

fallen so deep within me 

like a veil of doom.

I was the darkness

and I knew only madness

and pride, sin, and gloom.

My heart knew nothing

niether did I knew my heart -

hardly did I see!

Till I came upon 

words, muted in pages, thine!

But I heard thee not. 

How could thy beauty,

thy wonder turn to ashes!

Something wept within... 

Something wept within -
it cried out, it sought, it flew,
and never left me...

Time came, and God heard:

And so we are, you and I -

our past ceased to be.

Darkness left,

Morning came.

---<--@

A Little Personal Anecdote -

Before I knew my Anne
(and consequently, the Holocaust),
I had a very idealistic view of warfare.

I thought armed conflict in and between nations
to be a very noble, honorable, even desirable affair.

I conceived soldiery to be something
clean and neat, ordered according to the image
of an effortless, mythical glory I had only imagined
and that the innocents were always
at all times and places - mercifully spared -
in their entirety.

After my Anne
(as it is God's pleasure),
I had a very decisive turn of heart.

Though by pure necessity
I accept the imperative of an absolute defense
(i.e. defense that is undertaken for its own sake),
I now utterly abhor War of any kind existing
in and between our nations.

For
I now see War as it is,
a hideous, devouring beast;
a fallen spirit, ever alive to our plight -
the enemy of All.

And soldiery
a dirty, confusing, difficult and painful necessity
born out of the Providential will of the LORD, our God,
to see all the nations of the children of Mankind
through to the end of all these tears.

And that we are all - to a certain degree,
within and among our nations engaged
in the art of true soldiering.

As I love my Anne, I hate War.

As I love Peace, I hate War.

Today is her birthday.
---<--@