The Wisdom Of An Animal

There have been days where things may have not been going the way I expected and I was feeling a slight emotional discomfort as a result of it. The discomfort is of course related to resistance to the present moment. I've become much better at identifying any resistance and related symptoms while at the same time remaining in a state of acceptance about the present moment which immediately eases any stress. However, there have been times where I've forgotten, even if briefly, to create space between me and the thoughts and emotional forms which may have arisen in any given moment of perceived discomfort. In those moments, on more than one occasion, I've gained much wisdom just from watching my pet...a cat named Hayden. We call him Hayden and the general population of humans call him a cat. We even bought him a name tag with his name on it and a phone number in case he gets lost. He is a house cat so we let him outside from time to time while we are there with him but the majority of his time is spent indoors (although he spends a lot of time calmly looking out the window). The name Hayden is something we've labeled him with. We've also labeled him as a cat and a pet. We've also attached our human fears and insecurities about being lost by giving him a collar. We even keep him inside most of the time because "we love him and would not want him to get lost or run away". I realized very clearly one day during a time of my own internal emotional disturbance about something that was happening that day, as I was staring at Hayden while reflecting on the event. Suddenly my focus shifted from any thought about the event to amazement at the pure presence exhibited by Hayden. He wasn't worried about the previous moment or what might happen the next moment. He was just calmly sitting in the window purring. We have given him these labels and tried to attach our human concerns (due to lack of pure presence in the moment of NOW) to Hayden but he remains grounded in presence...an effortless state. We can learn so much from our animal friends. Oh, and by the way....without even trying, I became fully present just by becoming aware of Hayden's presence. Presence is beautifully contagious.