We called her “Sikoshi Cat”, after the Japanese word for “a little”. It meant “to cuddle” in our imaginations. This longhaired Burmese cat just started roaming around our home, entering our open door, and making herself at home. She was certainly the strangest cat I had ever known. Kristin, her owner, thought Pueo, her original name, might have been abused in the past. She would not readily take to petting and would try to sneak out from under your hand. She was not like other cats I’ve known who enjoy rubbing themselves next to your legs and getting your attention. Sikoshi just did her thing; she roamed the neighborhood or took a stance to peer deeply into space.
I loved Sikoshi Cat, but I can’t really say that she loved me. This was the classic situation of a passionate love not being returned.
Yes, it’s about love, the theme of movies, songs, and endless romance novels. For some of us, it is the concern of our every waking moment. We’re all interested in it, yet why does it seem there’s not enough to go around?
How could there be no love? How cruel for there not to be enough love! Well, if there was love between me and an unconcerned cat, maybe there is hope for humanity. Maybe love is really out there, but maybe there’s some magic to make it to surface. What about all the fighting and conflict going on in the world? Where’s the love there?
Love after all may not be what we think it is. My definition for love is an awareness of the relationship we have with everything else in the universe. When we acknowledge our relationship we have with everything else that is around, then we experience love for the world. Love underlies the basis for all things that must interact — the sky and the clouds, the land and the sea, man and machine. Love honors the essential connection that exists between all mankind and everything else that man interacts with. Love marks the vital link we have with other things. Remembering the lyrical strains of the birds and the bees, love is everything in life interacting with everything else in a sacred sexual act. This sense of our relationship to all else and the sense of a greater Whole is an experience of love. Actually instead of a song called “All You Need is Love”, the Beatles really should have sung, “All There is is Love”.
Love is an appreciation of what we have. It is giving thanks. Do you have it yet? Just choose to give thanks to something and you are on your way to love. Acknowledge the simple things you have that you often take for granted: clothes, home, food, nature, your thoughts, your body. Love is within you whenever you desire to call it forth.