I just heard that Matty died this morning. The following was published April 2011 giving background on this lovely sensitive cat. Matty was two weeks short of his 16th birthday. For the record Orlando, mentioned below, went missing from his home across the road on November 5th last year and never seen again.
As the proud companion & carer of a former Temple Cat from Reading Priory, one Matthew (Matty) Cat, aka as MC, I welcome Orlando to the (possible) status of Jade Mountains Temple Cat – perhaps. The Prior at Reading at that time was reluctant to take MC on as she knew she was away a lot. Being Siamese he attached strongly to one person & each time the prior went away he got more & more upset. Eventually he was shut in the utility room as he had wee’d in other rooms in the Temple!
One time the prior knew she would be away for several months. I had a vacancy in my household & heart for a cat & had been waiting for one to show up. I always remember the joy of having Matthew at first – it was like me & the dog became a family when he arrived to join us. He was fostered at first but everyone decided he should stay. He was a teenager then, now he’s 13 & still as handsome as ever. It is the only time I have experienced love at first sight when I first met him.
We grow close to our animal companions and their loss is felt no less keenly than the loss of human friends and companions. This post is for Matty and for Angie.
I’ve a photograph of myself taken in Whitworth Park, Manchester. It was around about 1962 and my two flat mates and I decided we would have a picnic in the park since it was a sunny day. It felt like a holiday. Photographs can bring the past into the present with interesting insight into the person one once appeared to be. Every now and then I come across that ’60s pic and marvel. I looked like every other girl of the time; skirt length, hair, pose, expression and an air of confidence which did not match how I felt at the time. (Just in case you’re wondering…no I’m not going to publish that photograph here. Even if I could find it!)
Dear Photograph – take a picture of a picture, from the past, in the present is a photography project with a difference. Maybe I’ll take my 1960’s photograph back to Whitworth Park next time I’m in Manchester and take a photograph of it.
The image of me walking in open country to be found at the top of the side bar was taken in 2010 in Edmonton Canada. I remember walking along in the wind as a joyous time, with a very different interior to the 1960’s girl.
Leaves on the lane.I drove to Newcastle Airport this morning – the leaves are scattering in the wind. On the road the leaves are jewel like. However those who have leaves all over their lawns, drive and pavement are seeing them less as jewels and more as work. I’ve raked up leaves into piles and then bagging them. In Eugene Oregon and in Edmonton Canada.
A reader sent me this link to this video of a dog, a Husky, enjoying a pile of leaves. Love seeing animals just playing for the joy of it. Sometimes I felt like I was playing when raking up leaves….all a matter of attitude I guess.
The following is part of an email responding to somebody talking about a decision he had made and how he had come to see a level to making decisions that goes deeper than the nuts and bolts level. A spiritual level.
There is a power, or it is empowering, on all levels to make a decision…. What’s behind making decisions is hard to put into words isn’t it. There’s a complexity. There is the decision that ‘comes to you’ which is invariably coupled with practical considerations. Then there is the decision which is predominately about grasping the wheel of ones life and in the process somewhat disregarding practical implications too. I think decisions are a mixture of both. Sometimes there is more of one than the other in the mix but really the thing is to make a move if that’s what’s running through ones blood. No argument about that.
Good fortune good friend.
Practice Within The Order of Buddhist Contemplatives
