The Pet Issue (v.12)

tice. There, with microwaveable noodles in
hand, was where I finally had mindfulness
explained to me in a way I could understand.
“To be mindful,” he said, “is to take yourself
off autopilot.”
So often in my life, I have believed that in
order to be alive in a way that was meaningful,
I was required to be constantly deep in
thought. The unexamined life is not worth
living, is it? But of course, if the examination
never stops, the mind becomes overwhelmed.
Having one’s mind overwhelmed
is not to be mindful. To drive to work noticing
the stoplights, the shape and colors of
the cars around us, the fonts on the street
signs that we zoom past each day and to
really consider them; this is to be mindful.
Recently, my wife and I moved to a house on
the edge of Santa Fe. The property is vast;
more so than any other place we have lived
together, or apart. In the backyard, a pond is
filled golden, thin fish. Dead trees loom above.
Creosote line the edge of the yard and wind
chimes sing each morning. Our cat, Angel,
has never been as happy as she has here. Each
morning, I begin my day by making a pot of
tea and sipping from my mug while I stand
near our small, black and white creature. Her
fur rises in the wind. She sniffs at scents foreign
to her and watches in a kind of trance as
birds she has never observed glide overhead.
In recent years, I have begun to study the
ancient Chinese religion of Taoism. While it
is similar to Buddhism in its approach, Tao
is more mysterious, more elusive. Lao Tzu
claims that the Tao is moving through each
of us, nourishing us when we take the time
to draw from it. But what is the Tao? How
do we define it? Lao Tzu begins the Tao Te
Ching, the seminal text of Taoism by claiming
that the Tao itself cannot be named;
that to attempt to define it is to lose sight of
what it means to be a Taoist. So then, how
does one practice Tao? Lao Tzu seems to
suggest that we must do so through stillness.
Over and over, the Tao Te Ching implores
us to work through inaction. This is tricky.
We cannot risk interpreting Lao Tzu in a
way that is harmful to us. We should not
assume that we are meant to sit idly and refrain
from daily tasks. While many interpretations
of the Te Ching are possible and we
are limited by western perception, I think
the most useful interpretation of Lao Tzu’s
words is the idea that stillness, quiet, and
even what we would call mindfulness allow
this article is
dedicated to
the memory of
Angel Romero
us to move forward in our lives. I have seen speaks of ‘The Ten Thousand Things,’ an intimate
portrayal of the universe. Stillness, focus,
no better master of this than Angel, the cat
that shares a home with my wife and I. and the ability to exist in the moment are abilities
that the animals around us have mastered.
Look to the animal you have adopted and
think of what brightens them. We’ve all had Angel’s greatest joy in life comes from standing
the experience of sensing the lingering eyes in our wide yard, scratching at trees and listening
to the bending of the wind around the
of a dog that sits beneath the dinner table,
imploring us to offer them a scrap of human forms that surround her. And this stillness, too,
chow. But watch, in your memory, the enjoyment
that overtakes the dog as it is finally giv-
on my lap, purring, the sound moving through
can belong to us. I have felt it when Angel sits
en the morsel it so desires. Think of its focus, her small body. I have experienced it as I gently
ran my fingers through the fur on her back,
its ravenous munching; its ability to be unshaken
by anything that moves around itself. between her ears. Our pets can be our teachers.
Observing them, we can find ways to be
Throughout the Te Ching, Lao Tzu chooses to
evoke nature as a way of explaining and accessing
the Tao. He compares virtue to water. He them, holding them close, we can become
mindful. Sitting with them, walking beside
so.
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