When you wait for someone for few minutes, it’s your need.
For few hours, it’s your trust. For few weeks,
it’s your friendship. But to wait when you know,
the person will not come, it’s your love.

 ~Unknown 

A cat lover is called an Ailurophilia. Most cats had short hair until about 100 years ago, when it became fashionable to own cats and experiment with breeding. Cats have 32 muscles that control the outer ear (humans have only 6). A cat can independently rotate its ears 180 degrees. One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleeping. Cats have about 130,000 hairs per square inch (20,155 hairs per square centimeter). Source: Random Facts

Someone remembers, someone cares; your name is whispered in someone’s prayers. Keep bright hope of the future in view; someone lovingly is thinking of you. ~Unknown

Today, cats are living twice as long as they did just 50 years ago. Twenty-five percent of cat owners use a blow drier on their cats after bathing. Landing on all fours is something typical to cats thanks to the help of their eyes and special balance organs in their inner ear. These tools help them straighten themselves in the air and land upright on the ground. Source: Animal Planet

Watchfulness is the path of immortality:
Unwatchfulness is the path of death.
Those who are watchful never die:
Those who do not watch are already as dead.

Those who with a clear mind have seen this truth,
Those who are wise and ever watchful,
They feel the joy of watchfulness,
The joy of the path of the great.

And those who in high thought and in deep contemplation
With ever living power advance on the path,
They in the end reach NIRVANA,
The peace supreme and infinite joy.

― Juan Mascaró, The Dhammapada

Japanese Maple Tree Leaves. Photo credit: Randy Neufeldt

Better than a thousand sayings
Made up of useless words
Is one word of meaning
Which calms you to hear it.

~The Dhammapada

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

~Dogen

Jendhamuni in forest April 18, 2015.

May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being.
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

~Unknown

Icy Start to the Day. Photo credit. Randy Neufeldt