Friday, July 19, 2024

Brain packing

I was sitting there petting Leon and sipping coffee when I saw someone walking out at the lake. I happen to know this person quite often listens to NPR while out walking, which I really don't understand. For myself I greatly prefer being alone with my thoughts while walking, running or biking, though I am an inveterate book and podcast listener in the car.

But then again, I am almost OCD about my habits including, at that very moment, thinking I should be reading something in the spiritual vein, as I do at that time of morning. Presently I'm re-reading Abraham Joshua Heschel's Man is Not Alone. This despite the fact that it's been some time since any of those books really spoke to me in the deep way I hope for them to. I have clung to the ritual despite not getting the payout.

Meanwhile, I really do get a lot out of just sitting there petting the cat, despite Leon's pesky insistence that I scratch his belly in exactly this one spot and him putting himself at an angle and distance that is a bit of a pain in the ass to reach. But he looks so beatific when scratched there and wags his tail in such a sweet way. Discomfort or no, I should be focusing on the cat. The books will be there forever. He won't.

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