Thursday 6 August 2009

Oh to be a cat. They really know how to relax, don't they? Of all the creatures on God's earth they have to be the coolest when it comes to just doing nothing. The other day I had to step over one on the pavement, because it wasn't moving - not for anybody! There it was - eyes shut, paws stretched out, smiling in its sleep and whiskers twitching in time to some happy dream. It was obviously loving the sunshine from above and the warmth of the pavement below. The fact that it was in the way and people like me had to step over it did not matter one little bit - it was happy.

Most of us have precious little experience of being truly carefree. There's usually something playing at the back of our minds, even when we're trying to switch off. Like the person in the gym watching the news headlines whilst working off the fat, or the stock trader keeping an eye on the screens at home with their feet up - the world and its worries is never far away. Try as we might, the worries seem to find a little nook where they can creep in and plague us. Am in the only one, I wonder, to drive off down the road on holiday and ask myself before I've even got to the motorway whether or not I locked the front door? The ability to truly and totally relax is a rare one.

When Jesus preached his sermon on the mount he said that we should not worry about what to eat or what to drink or what to wear, for God himself could worry about such things. Rather, he said, we should be like the lilies of the field or the birds of the air. Of course, a lily must put down roots to find a drink, and a bird must take to the wing to find a meal. We all have to do these things, but we don't have to worry about them. Jesus went on to say that there was no point worrying about tomorrow, since each day had enough concerns of its own.

My feline friend didn't seem overly concerned about today, let alone tomorrow. Perhaps I should have told him the old African-American proverb which runs like this 'cat mighty dignified til de dog come by'- that would have wiped the smile off his face. But who'd have the heart to disturb a sleeping cat anyway?