Kinky plus five

So now you can see what we've been doing in our spare time. Luckily Kinky has taken care of the nursing part, but there's plenty more to do with five little ones about the house (six, with Ben). The kittens were born one week before Jeff arrived. When we told him the good news, on the way home from his talk at the Library, we noticed he didn't share our enthusiam. It was only later that we heard he's allergic to cats. Oops.




Courtney was the midwife and remains Kinky's favorite human to relate to.



Though we were initially quite distraught to learn our little teenage kitty was pregnant (another case of children having children), and it has at times been a total pain in the butt, overall we have had lots of laughs and plenty of fun with these guys. AND it will be grand to find homes for these little wide-mouthed creatures (that not only eat eat eat, but also mew mew mew). The logistics of moving mama cat, kittens and Ben from one holding pen to another, keeping everybody safe and separate, get a little complicated sometimes.




But, really, how danged precious can new life forms be?




If you ever need to get five kittens to all sit perfectly still with their eyes real wide, just turn on the vacuum cleaner.




So if I may be sappy and sentimental for a moment, I'd like to reflect on "new lives" (inspired by the new li'l furballs running underfoot).

When Courtney and I moved to Corvallis, it meant, as my beloved friend Valorie pointed out, a chance for us to live our lives differently. I had, during the last five years in Monterey, suffered from chronic health issues, and very much needed a change. So we both took this opportunity seriously, and I'm happy to report that we've made good changes, and there's surely more to come. Leaving friends and family down south has continued to be a point of sadness for us. That will probably not change--our connections to ones we love in California are very deep. But in our daily lives, I think we both feel satisfied and settled and incredibly grateful for what we have here.

And it feels like we are surrounded by "new-ness"--Ben's new life, Maya and Eder's new lives as parents, my mom's new life without my dad. Now Aaron and his dad Eric are moving from Monterey (the last of my family living on the Peninsula). Aaron's life of his friends and school community at the International School of Monterey, of living at the Rosedale Inn, where he's lived since he was a toddler, will soon be behind him. Enormous changes are ahead for him, besides the usual upheaval of being a pre-teen. The plan is that he and his dad will be moving to Eugene, which is only 45 minutes south of here, so that would be an incredible gift for us all. Please keep your fingers crossed, say prayers, chant, whatever might help bring that about.

Speaking of which, I'll end with a reading recommendation. I'm very much enjoying a book titled Rule Your World: Ancient Strategies For Modern Life, by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. He is the son of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who was, in the Tibetan Buddhist world, a warrior king, and credited with bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. The book is about how to keep a stable and happy mind, one of kindness and gratitude, in the midst of upheaval and stress and the strains of modern life. The key, he reveals, is shifting the preoccupation we have with "what about me? What do I need or want?" to "what can I give? How can I serve?"

In that spirit, may we each, in our own way, cultivate compassion for others and confidence in our own goodness. And as our dear buddy Kerry says before we eat: May all be fed. May all be healed. May all be loved.

Thanks for reading this, and there will be more soon,

Valori