“In Consideration Of Cats” is an article on cats and healing written by Keith for The Healing Trust spring newsletter.

‘In Consideration of Cats’ is a non-fiction collection of notes, observations, illustrations and poems reflecting on the behaviour and antics of cats and the healing that the world of our feline friends can bring us.

Originally, ‘Cats’ was part of a collection of stories that explored different aspects of joy. It was a very blissful time for me personally. I had just left full-time work, had moved to a bigger house to set up a therapy business, and was busying myself for a long and much needed holiday (a pre-honeymoon month in India and Nepal prior to getting married with a few days in Paris on honeymoon to finish up), when a long-blocked burst of creativity over-whelmed me.

So, in amidst much activity, I suddenly found myself being bombarded with thoughts, feelings, impressions and words that I needed to capture and organise into different story forms. My writing process is rather an unconscious journey and is always Spirit infused, but at the time I was truly standing ‘On Top Of The World’ (I had just flown over the Himalayas) and Spirit encouraged me to explore and discern the different aspects to these feelings of joy.

On returning home I regularly sat quietly with my four cats. I allowed them to lead me, in my stolen moments of solitude, to deepen my meditation practice and observational skills. I started with word-portraits of my four cats, describing their characteristics and interactions, so I curled up on the floor to be more closely immersed in their world – a fascinating world of contrasting dynamic activity and absolute stillness.

This process continued over the next six months and involved a trip to my friend in the States who had three cats. There I had a chance to daily observe and note more general characteristics and antics of our feline friends in relation to each other and how they had likewise inveigled themselves into my friend’s world and affection.

Yet cats, for all their domesticity, remain untamed and ‘Wild at Heart’. They need their roaming freedom and interaction is always on their terms. They offer purrs as reward for affection and claws if we transgress their boundaries. Purrs, of course, are warm, vibrational pulses of energy that are very therapeutic and calming, soothing our daily distresses and linking us back into our Heart Centres.

In return for feeding, watering, and grooming, they offer us comedy, affection, exasperation, and comfort – but above all the pleasure of integration with another kingdom. If we allow them, they will teach us the ‘Tranquility of the Senses’ in their stillness, a useful starting place for those wishing to go on Inner Adventures of Consciousness, as well as showing us the ‘Oneness’ of focused action (there is no mind-body split in them!).

They know how to have fun and offer us friendship and companionship in our moments of need. They are rascals and rogues as well as dashing heroes and heroines. Yet ultimately they are our four-legged living, ringing- singing bowls of beauty and pleasure.

They are part of the great web and Interconnectedness of Souls and you never know who might be spiritually connecting into them from behind the scenes or who and where they will turn up next. They are Masters-in-the-Making and show us the nature of the Cat Way.

Keith Brazil’s ‘In Consideration Of Cats’ is available as a paperback from Amazon.co.uk or as an eBook from Amazon, iTunes, Smashwords and Kobo.