It’s quite difficult to concentrate on typing this post. Roshi kitten crawled into my cross-legged lap as I started typing, and now he’s gazing up at me with half-shut, love-you eyes. I’m sure you can hear him purring from there. And now his sister Tsuki is here too, and they’re making that double-purr music.

This is what life is all about.

A few days ago I read Dh Maitreyabandhu’s article about making poetry into a spiritual practice. It’s a great article – read it here. In it he speaks about the dangers of success, and how getting our poems accepted or receiving praise can lead us to want more more more. Our writing can become trying-to-get-more-praise.

With my long-standing anxieties about having-enough-money, what really struck me was his suggestion that ‘if we win prize money, we can give some of it away’. An aim to have LESS money. The idea that having less money could be a GOOD thing – something that will help our spiritual life. This is not how I’ve seen things for 37 years!

I think we can keep aligning ourselves to our spiritual compasses whether we have hardly-any-money or are stinking rich. I’m not convinced that we should avoid success, or even avoid goals of being successful.

But it does help to remember that having money can be as much of a hindrance as a help.

I was expecting a big contract between now and Christmas, which would have meant lots of work and lots of money. It felt exciting – the money might be a holiday next year, or a more lavish Christmas.

It fell through today, and as well as the disappointment there was relief. I’d wanted a quieter Autumn. Now I was being given that, as a gift.

The purring is still going strong. Tsuki has her paw on my wrist. Roshi has his little chin in the air and, now I’m looking at him, is gazing at me again with a dreamy look. THIS is what life is all about.

To love Roshi & Tsuki, even if you’ve never met them.

(here’s the soundtrack to accompany this post…)

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