Coping With COVID - Just Mimic Your Cat!
These are very surreal times for humankind right now. I keep thinking it’s all a bad dream and one day we will wake up to a realization that it was all just a warning sign – one huge nightmare for all of us! Unfortunately, although we won’t awake from that dream, we can definitely be awakened by this whole global pandemic and what it might mean for each of us.
During these times of social distancing and self-isolation, most of us have had no option but to slow down our worlds. Slowing down is like a form of meditation in its rawest form, by choice or not. It has allowed many of us to go within and begin to examine our own sense of purpose and where we fit in both with the present pandemic situation, and even perhaps in the future, when all this is over.
I have felt fortunate to have two cats to look to during this isolation period, for they have greatly enhanced my own slowing down process. I was sitting outside one morning, when one of them appeared, purring and chortling with surprise that I was socially present with her, and not in my usual frantic state of daily work preparations. Instead, with cup of coffee in hand, I sauntered outside at an unusually slow pace. She had somehow sensed that I had nowhere to go and that I was now ready to be on her level. As I sat and pondered her silence, I realized that a cat is almost always in a meditative state of being, even when there is chaos all around.
Inviting my company, she sat with prowess upon the fence and began taking in the soothing warmth of the April sun. Before I knew it, after only a few sips of pleasure from my mug, she was perched with all fours beneath her belly on a wooden platform that usually holds plants in the summertime. Her eyes had softened but her ears remained perked, indicating that she was still well aware of the world around her, yet unaffected by it. I gazed at her in amazement and wondered how I might be able to attain such a perfect balance, especially now with all hell breaking loose in the world around us. I envied her and wanted to ask her to teach me how. How calm and steady she was, even in the midst of all I could feel – chaos and uncertainty.
As I began to lose myself in her world, I felt a sudden, yet pleasant soft brush beneath me. Being about twice her size, it’s never difficult to miss the boy. His gentle meow and playful demeanor made me smile and grounded me to the earth. As he flopped down close to my feet and bared his furry belly, I could not help but think how trusting and carefree he was. He could have easily been poised to pounce at anything moving in the grass at that moment, but instead he turned over and disappeared slowly into the forest, where I could still see him. As I watched, I was dumb-founded by his ability to go from playful to a zone of quiet being. And I realized once more that a cat is able to magically turn it off whenever called for. I admired him. More so, I wanted to be like him, in the wake of the current state of the world around us.
It is through being more present with my cats over the past month that I have come to be enlightened as to how to deal with a world of uncertainty and anxiety right now. If I could just mimic my cats, I would be able to take myself to a meditative state when all the world around is filled with fear and worry; I would be completely absorbed in my own quiet, fully aware of the reality around me but unaffected by it; I would be able to find that perfect balance at the drop of a hat, a balance that would be grounding and healing; I would trust in the universe that this too shall pass and teach us all something invaluable; I would be carefree and playful with a positive attitude for what is to come, despite what the rest of the world is doing or thinking; and I would be able to turn it all off when required in order to maintain my calmness and sanity.
If we all had a cat, we could mimic him, and with calmness, trust and grace, we would find our way through this together.
