The Cheshire Cat Walks Beside Me.

Like a ghost shepherding a lost soul the feline has oft appeared and walked within my shadow throughout my tumultuous and bizarre life. Often from afar they peer deep into the recesses of my well traveled mind and communicate with the cat woven into my essense. The left-over energy from a past life lived as a mysterious yet intelligent feline. It's the delicate way in which I walk and tread lightly around squeaky spots in the floor, or the heightened-sensitivity to noise; still yet, perhaps it's how at night I come alive. Of course my intuition is also quite cat-like; a gift that I will always admire my mother for passing onto me. Anyway, the list of traits I share with the cat are uncanny and reassuring. Regardless, who wouldn't want to be watched over by one of the most mysterious, ancient and intelligent creatures ever to walk the skin of Earth?

Ironically I have had a rather aloof experience with the feline community over the years. That said, if you know anything about cats then you are aware that cats are often independent, solitary creatures, so it isn't uncommon for cats to avoid one another. In my case, I would frame my relationship with other feline energies to one of mutual respect and tolerance. You might be saying, "Green man, aren't cat lovers supposed to smother their cats?" Actually, from my experience cats prefer limited interaction and that is why having a feline friend would be good for me. Both the cat and I like our space and independence yet like to have a friend around for rainy days. But I digress a bit from the original thesis of this essay. I was speaking about cats walking along side my path like old, trusted allies letting me know that I'm still in the secret society from my past life living amongst their silent kind.

Every place we've moved (my wife and I), cats have always found us. Around the marking of the millennium, my wife and I were newly weds living in Boulder, Colorado. I was following my high-school theatre dream of getting my university degree in acting but as the schizoaffective disorder mercilessly took over my mind I was failing a lot of other class like math and science. I was on a bad streak of downward slips into the deep bowels of depression when one day I came home from classes and saw a beautiful tiger stripe house cat sitting on the deck fence. I stood still and remained quiet because like me, cats have a tendency to spook. I also didn't look at her directly in the eyes but she didn't leave.

So I softly walked over to the stairs just to her right and below and sat on one of the steps; squishing my body against the hand railing to give her plenty of room to feel comfortable. Then, we just sat there in perfect, rejuvenating silence. Her soft presence and quiet, limited movements were like guidance from a Zen master on how to slow down and concentrate upon the immediate moment. Together we enjoyed that moment, which included a nice warm gentle breeze blowing through the pines trees just in front of the deck. One of the best smells to help me relax is the fresh scent of pine in the air. It's a fresh scent that does have this seemingly inexplicable power of giving you a feeling of being cleansed of heavy, stagnant energy.

My feline friend watched over me for about 15 minutes before taking one last look at me and slipping off into the bushes. My heart was in bliss from that intimate, one-on-one bonding with that cat as she helped me stop and just enjoy the moment. It was a wonderful gift and that is how most of my cat encounters go--intimate but respectful of the others space. Cats and I seem to have this unspoken understanding and ability to communicate with the mind. It must be the shared intuition because I don't feel that with any other animal. Then there are the stray cats that always seem to know to come to our house for some food, shelter and help. We've lived in our current place for about 10 years and in those 10 years we've had at least 4 strays end up at our house. It's like they can sense the familiar energy and know this is a safe place for them to come. Besides me, my wife is also a big animal person so between us we send out the right signal I guess.

We're vegetarian in part because we love animals so much but the funny thing is that we keep some cans of tuna fish around for our feline family to eat when they show up on our doorstep tired, scared and hungry. I share with you one last story about my connection to cats because I see I'm going on long with this post. My wife use to work with this woman who had tons of dogs but only one cat, so he was often overlooked. One late afternoon my wife and I were visiting their house. The people who live there were being their usual clueless, unaware selves and after a short while I began to feel that someone was watching me, and it was increasing with intensity the longer I didn't look. It felt like the side of my face was slowly but surely warming up. So I turn my gaze over and notice their cool, laid-back cat staring right at me. I felt immediately that he wanted something, so I asked in my head, "What do you need friend?" And I know this sounds kooky but after I said that in my mind the cat looked up at this empty food dish on the counter and then back at me again!! Immediately I asked the woman who lived there that I thought the cat was hungry. So she went to grabbed the kitty food and this cat was already on the counter waiting for his meal.

I have a strong feeling that I was a priest in a past life too in ancient Egypt where I had a lot of connection with cats because of vivid dreams and visions I've had, which is also partly why I have been attracted to Crowley for some time, but from afar. Anyway, this was before I had an amazing vision while on LSD of this black cat wandering through a dimly lit pyramid or underground temple. A lot of native peoples in Latin and South America use hallucinogenic drugs to uncover their power animal or totem animal. I took my visit from this black cat in ancient Egypt to have been one of those mystical moments of bonding because he appeared into my vision throughout that LSD trip whenever I felt anxious or edgy. His face would just appear in front of me and fracture into a honeycomb of many reflections of his face, which was accompanied by waves of peace emanating from his eyes. I know, a lot of this sounds kooky and that's fine if you feel that way but while I don't believe that all of this kind of stuff is real and meaningful; there is a part of these experiences, which seen the right way can be great guides as you navigate through life. So, the next time you see a stray cat--it might just be me. ;)

~The Green Man has Spoken~

What Kind of Environmental Nerd are You?

Here at EDF, (Environmental Defense Fund) we value our scientists and policy experts who work to make our planet a healthy and sustainable place to live.

We thought we'd have some fun with this, so we designed an online quiz to help you find out what kind of environmental nerd you are. We foster an atmosphere of creative thinking and scientific rigor. In short, we take pride in our nerdiness!!

Green Man: The different nerd results are: Climate Nerd, Wildlife Nerd, Health Nerd, Sea Nerd. My result was wildlife nerd and it completely fits. Except that I don't buy any meat but I do buy free-range, organic dairy products whenever possible, from a reputable source because I know a lot of "organic" stuff, isn't. Anyway, on with my results:

You love wildlife, from birds to bears to wolves and maybe some of the more slimy, creepy creatures out there. You’ve probably even rescued your own pets. You try to buy free-range meat and dairy products whenever possible. Meet David Wolfe – EDFs Wildlife Nerd. He’s working with Texas landowners to restore and recover endangered species habitats.

Green Man: I don't see, however, how wildlife experts can study and observe fellow magnificent beings and yet go back to the city and eat a cousin of that animal in the form of a cow or a pig? It's their right of course and I try not to be a "militant vegetarian"--I just find it curious. It seems to me that animal loving experts would be vegetarian. Tell me what kind of environmental nerd you are!!

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Should We Genetically Engineer Farm Animals to Feel Less Pain?

The New York Times had a very interesting Op-Ed Friday, which took an unusual approach to the concern that factory farms are inhumane. Adam Shriver, a doctoral student in the philosophy-neuroscience-psychology program at Washington University, makes the argument that the key to raising more humane meat isn't changing the methods by which they are raised, but to genetically engineer them so they feel less pain from their conditions.

James: Are you kidding me? This sounds like some bizarre Nazi eugenics experiment. Why don't we just genetically engineer these animals to have no legs, no eyes and no brains so that they're just a pile of meat? I think, (as a reader on Huffington Post said) it's the humans who should be genetically engineered to learn how to care for other living beings other than themselves. Better yet, maybe we should genetically engineer the homeless so that we can eat them!! Isn't it funny that we'll eat fist fulls of meat and think nothing of it but find cannibalism to be revolting? Maybe people would care more about the treatment of these animals if their meat came to them like it did when people lived on the farm--bloody, hairy and with the hooves still on it.

As it is people don't even have to think about where that meat comes from and what it looked like when that animal was slaughtered, drained of blood and skinned. People just go buy the plastic covered sanitized version, which helps them not think about where it came from. In addition, maybe people would think twice about eating if they had to kill, skin and gut their own meat. But there are other reasons to be against eating meat, "Meat production is also responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all modes of transportation." For these and other reasons I went vegetarian four years ago.

PHOTO: Animal rights activist Harmony Qura lays spattered with fake blood in a giant meat tray during a protest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 2, 2007. Oct. 4-10 is World Farm Animals week and activists around the world are demonstrating to put an end to animal suffering at factory farms and slaughterhouses. Reuters photo: Jason Reed