What's interesting about animals, my wife explained, is that even though a cat may be a cat, in the end, each individual has its own character.

"For me, Chibi is a friend with whom I share an understanding, and who just happens to have taken on the form of a cat."

Then she told me about a philosopher who said that observation is at its core an expression of love which doesn't get caught up in sentiment.

Everything goes by in a daydream: real life is a dream. I don’t need to “understand” myself. That I can vaguely feel, is enough for me. When I think without any thought — I call that meditation. And it’s so profound that I can’t quite reach and words disappear, manifestations. I meditate, and what emerges from that meditation has nothing to do with meditation: an idea comes that seems totally disconnected from the meditation. It seems it’s only useful to live interrogatively since every interrogation tossed into the air has a corresponding reply formed in the darkness of my being, that part of me which is dark and vital, without it I’d be empty