thank you Leo, r.i.p.

“the intent of this blog is to incrementally build a body of thought that works toward integrating various topics, yoga, fitness, and the arts – it’s a process…”

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thank you leo, r.i.p. – February 22, 2011

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today my wife and i lost leo, our kitty of 16 years

there’s much to thank him for of course, all the warm nights, adamant greetings when we came home after a long day away, head rubs against our legs to deposit pheromones for us, and generally, as long as we fed him 😉 unconditional love

i guess he could argue that being fed is not conditional is this life 😉

and i further guess, that reminders to do with this life of ours, may be his most enduring gift to sheila and myself

many of my thoughts and beliefs are deeply held, and, based on my first memories from my dad and mom, cultivated since those first breaths with them

they (my beliefs) are not something i usually openly easily share, as i as strongly believe each of us arrive at critically valid necessary-to-live beliefs, on our own terms, within our own journeys, in our own allotted time

additionally, i’ve had quite vivid re-arrangements, paradigm shifts [1], of equally strongly belief before; and know i’m working with “in-process” assumptions [2]

finally, my beliefs are just that, beliefs –

something i believe in, even if deeply – but, that i don’t “know” –

any “knowing” i do have, is faith based

to the left is Leo, just a week ago, spring planting with the rest of us –

assuming he’d get to find more bugs as winter’s whisked away by gentle southern sea breezes, not yet heated to the point of driving everyone back inside for 6 months 😉

leo worked from an assumption of abundance, but you had to look for it –

or at least meow loudly for it 😉

reincarnation – yes, i do “believe” in it, but again, don’t “know” that it does indeed exist

if it does, i don’t believe we regress or can slide back into something less evolved –

ie, i believe our kitty leo is more than ready to grow his soul into something higher next time around, whatever that might be, but would not slip into being a snail, for instance

do i have any “past life” memories? naw, and don’t want any – what good would it do me? so i can complain about things or people i had or was?

naw, whatever i learned or shoulda learned in any past life, i’m dealing with it or enjoying it now [3]

more important to me, is the idea that the attachments we make, to ourselves, our friends and family, our spouses, and yes, our pets, are not only not-bad, not only not something-to-rise-above, but vitally significant attachments and beings

an idea so vital, i believe we may be on this earth in these bodies exactly for that reason – not of breaking attachment, but making and keeping attachments –

or more accurately, recognizing those attachments that exist, anyway…

can one really authentically make the argument that we are one energy or life, and part of one god, and not need to be aware of our attachment to all of what we are a part of?

our planet is a tiny speck within our solar system, itself barely a speck within our galaxy, ad finitum –

do we really think we can leave our earth, our physical and spiritual earth, our incredibly necessary sun, without the need of bringing consciousness and conscientiousness to the rest of our group of souls we’ve risen to life with?

whether we wait in heaven for our fellow souls, or do return to this earth, in whatever manner it is that could happen – and one can have a field day with those speculations 😉 much depends on what we do now, while we’re here

and this is where it gets sticky, most of us have pretty strong ideas what it is that’s needed to have us all “get along” – get along “properly” “appropriately” “fairly” “karmic-ly” etc etc etc –

a lot of sticky words huh? and the concepts are soaked with super glue 😉

so, because of all these can’t-get-them-off-my-mental-fingers concepts and beliefs, which i myself believe we each have to define and re-define, in an in-process-process of a duration i have no idea of, i don’t and won’t argue the merits of “what-i-don’t know”

i’ll respect, even if disagree, with ideas offered; but beyond a point, there’s no point arguing what can’t be proved –

so, are some things worth fighting for then?

evidently, yes 😉

so meanwhile…

i am grateful for leo – we lost him –

but as sheila says, he did everything with us –

leo left us with so much more…memories…reminders…

reminders of all these deeply held beliefs of mine, and why i value the people i have grown up with and got to know as i age –

i am grateful for the reminder of so many things i, day-to-day, take so much for granted for –

grateful i grew up in a country believing each of us has an opinion worth respecting – and that there is a rule of law –

that i believe freedom is an inherent concept, still-evolving  –

that “process” itself is so much a part of me now…

that i am alive to still attempt to share…

and for the people with whom i share my life, most of them anyways 😉 after all, it is a process 😉

rest in peace leo, you deserve it

namaste – con dios – god be with you

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footnotes

[1] a philosophy class i had in graduate school, way back at the beginning of the 80’s! featured the book, “the structure of scientific revolutions” – if you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a milestone…

[2] i do take a tiny consolation that most of us can’t function without accepting some assumptions as working models, whether we think they’re “in process” or not 😉

[3] at the start of the 70’s, in houston, i first learned of meditation at the esoteric philosophy center

(though i’ve since realized meditation is experienced many ways)

it was an aquarian new-age burst of interest in yoga and more usually thought of eastern ideas, reincarnation and meditation

william david, the director there then, once said to me (paraphrasing) “if you had all those memories of past lives available in memory, you’d go crazy! and not be able to do anything else!” – he also emphasized how what was then, was then, and this is now –

that rang true to me then, and still does

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