In the Now

 Sadly, my beloved cat Josie is no longer with me.  She passed away about 10 days ago after taking a downturn in her health.  It has been quite a transition time since then, and I would like to share some of my observations.

The first order of business was to discard or donate all of her cat supplies.  Then I gave the house a good cleaning.  One can imagine the energy of a sick cat that was still lingering here.  I was starting from brand new. 

All the while, I was being the observer of my reaction to all of this.  The moment of her passing brought much sadness, but there has not been much of that since then.  That was surprising to me.  After all, she was 18 years old and I had had her here in the house for 17 years.  She was the best buddy that one could ever have!  Josie was quite a talker, and now the house is pretty quiet. 

As part of my spiritual path, I have been doing my best to stay in each “now” moment all through the day.  If I find my thoughts drifting back to a past event or focusing on the future, I use some of RJ Spina’s tricks.  In particular, I repeat to myself “Who am I?”, or simply tell myself that I just arrived here having no past or no future.  Also, imagining that what is happening around me is a movie and I am just watching it works well, too. 

I am sure that this may sound odd, but now, it is like I never had a cat at all!  That leads me to the subject of grief.  First of all, grief takes one into the past, especially through mental activity.  We can loop though “what if’s” endlessly.  Grief also indicates some sort of attachment to a person, place or event.  Attachments can really suck your energy, whether it is to something in the past, or a current person or situation.  Of course all of this keeps you from being fully present in the now. 

Your point of power is always in each now moment.  This is where true change can be made, or information from your higher guidance can be accessed.  We do not need to go back into the past to figure things out.  The answers are always at hand in each now moment. 

So how this will all evolve waits to be seen.  Caring for a sick cat was more stressful than I realized.  For now, I am starting out peaceful, fresh and clean.  That feels very good.