First call of our home study course began with Roxy the cat. Roxy is an 8 year old cat that has been living with Karen since she was 6 weeks old.
Karen led our meditation and guided us through grounding, settling in and becoming neutral, and then connecting with the animal. We were given instruction to check in with Roxy and see if we could find out a little about her essence, or personality, and what her favorite things were.
I struggled to establish a connection, after all, this was my very first attempt! Eep! What I felt was that she was a very feminine cat, very happy and playful and also very observant of what was going on around her. When I attempted to express interest in what her favorite thing was, I got the sense of laying in the sun, on warm carpet.
When the connection period was over, Karen checked in with each one of us on the phone, and we had the chance to talk about what we got.
All of what I got was echoed by other students, in various forms. She was described as being serene, peaceful, but playful. As calm, and not shy, a caretaker and guardian of the household. The favorite things that other people discovered in addition to laying in the sun were playing with feather toys, small balls to chase, catnip, and being out in the garden. Someone even discovered that she liked turkey!
When all of us had given our descriptions, Karen confirmed and gave us more information on Roxy. She loves to lay in the sun! Her favorite spots are laying in the driveway next to the car or in the grass in the yard. She is playful and loves to tear around the house and doesn't act her age. She loves catnip, and has a black ball with catnip in it. She is slow to warm up to new people, but very affectionate with those that she knows well. She loves Karen a lot and likes to spend time in her lap.
The call was great, I was a little stunned to dive right in with so little instruction prior to the beginning. I guess I was expecting there to need to be more guidance and information in the beginning, but Karen did a great job of setting us up, and just letting us role. I felt very vulnerable and new with the experience. Many others in the group got a lot more information than I did. It gave me the feeling of being in kindergarten amongst high schoolers. It was a relief to have gotten some details correct, even if it felt like baby talk to me.
I know that this will be a process and a journey of the exploration of self for me. I know that I will need to be content with where I am in any given moment, while at the same time striving to be more open to adaptation and learning. It is going to take learning about meditation, and doing it, along with learning to connect that will make me better at this. The challenge will be the combination of doing nothing, and not doing too much. I'm thrilled that the first connection was a good one, with validation, its a great place to start. The journey is the most important part anyway!
