Booga cat

Booga cat claws his way up my leg on the sofa. I think he's having an aversion to being without a lap. I undo claws one at a time, having an aversion to claws in my leg. Up on the sofa on my lap, he retracts his claws, purrs and sits with what is. Before that we were both pretty intent on getting out of what was.

Is that what we do? Dig our claws into this person, or that job, or this group, so we can be the kitty cat, that gets to purr in a lap? Or maybe we just leap into the lap, skip the claw part. The lap being the job or organization or spiritual group or relationship. Or maybe we're the one with the lap, nurturing this group or this job or a relationship so we can have a kitty cat sit in our lap.

There is a better way.
The second of the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path for the way out of suffering is Right Intention.

We can sit with our desires, retract the claws, just be with desire.
We can sit with our aversions.
-----
We don't have to push the river, force things the way we think they should be.

We don't have to dam the river, or blank out on things we think shouldn't be.

We can work with what is, with pure intention, with peace in every step. -----
Resting in the river.

The lap idea was taken from writings by Chogyam Trungpa.