The cat is unusually quiet today; she is typically talkative.
I see her fixed on something outside—it’s a crow. My little furry predator lies like the Sphinx, keeping her eye on a target she will never reach.
She’s eyeing the creature attentively, as though she is deep in thought–that’s if felines can think deeply. What runs through my cat’s mind when she sees an unfamiliar creature outside? Unlikely is the idea that this furry feline is flooded with a sea of unwanted chatter. Some people, unfortunately, are cursed with a mix of intrusive emotions, as a monkey echoes in their minds. However, some can tame the scattered thoughts that arise with those uncontrollable emotions. As for my cat, she is spared the burden of a monkey mind.
Nonetheless, the chatter monkeys in my brain pull me from this moment.
How can we prevent negative thoughts—those orphaned thoughts—from arising? The thoughts that do us no good? Do they wander off and become lost? How do we abandon those unsolicited thoughts? Do they become unrecognizable, no longer a part of me, becoming absorbed into the white noise? Like my cat, I gaze out the window, staring as if searching for solutions beyond my view that are unattainable.
Maybe the crow has the insight.
My cat rests on the floor. She has a bird’s-eye view as the crow flies across another branch. It hides behind an oak tree. Perhaps it’s hiding its young—a crow will never reveal its offspring.
These unwanted, orphaned thoughts seem to exist outside my room. They are entangled in the world. They are much like the crow’s caws that taunt my cat. Still, she remains fixed on the mysterious creature peeking in and out of its hiding place. The outside breeze can carry my thoughts away. It might hide them among the trees where the crow finds a resting place. Yet the whistling breeze brings those abandoned thoughts back. I try to refuse them, but they return, swirling back to me. I remind myself not to let them find me.
So, I sit in silence, trying to hold onto the current moment. Despite everything, I am here in this fleeting moment, listening to my cat’s relieved meow as the crow departs. I hear the silence, a heavy blanket that pulls me back into a comforting stillness.
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