I try to meditate about 10 minutes each day. I call it meditating for lack of a better word. My best description is sitting quietly and concentrating on my breathing when my mind wanders. My aim is to bring peace to the start of my day.

Everything started great. That was until Emily, one of my cats, noticed me sitting there and decided to irritate me. I meditate just outside our bathroom. Emily is finicky about drinking water. She insists on drinking directly from the tap in our tub. No other way method works for her. When she sees anyone near the bathroom, she rushes to the tub and cries. Not meows, they are long grating cries that continue until someone turn on the tap.

I tried ignoring her. Really I did. I swear. I am pretty good at winning battles with her when I am doing things like laundry or reading the internet or watching TV. I will ignore or yell at her until she stops. In this case, her cries defeat the whole purpose of peace and quiet. I can’t center myself when I spend the whole time angrily thinking why doesn’t that damn cat stop crying. So I have incorporated turning on the tap as a part of my meditation and Emily became very co-operative.

Until that is she decided that she wanted to get in my lap after drinking from the tap. I sit in an office chair that safely accommodates my ass and not much else. This would work if Emily were a lap cat but she isn’t. She is sitting by the human cat. An open lap won’t do at all. She also needs a fairly significant landing space before she will venture a leap. She didn’t have a place on the chair and no room to jump. So she cried.

Again, I tried ignoring her but she was relentless. In frustration, I moved to the couch that gives her ample landing room for her leaps and a space next to me for her to sit while I meditated.

All was fine until she decided I should be petting her while she was there. She nudged my hand with her head. I can’t believe it. I have done everything to start my day peacefully why won’t this cat just leave me alone for 10 minutes. She won’t. How can you find inner peace when a pet-demanding cat is head butting your hand. You can’t, so I now spend some of my mediation time petting Emily until she is happy just to sit next to me.

Which worked but lately Molly, our other cat, spied Emily and I on the couch. She sometimes joins us on the couch. This wouldn’t be a problem except that Molly is a lap cat and in order to get to my lap she has to climb over Emily to get to me. This annoys Emily who, I might add, is a lot less accommodating than me in regards to irritations. She hisses and bats at Molly in a very unwelcoming way. This goes on until I break it up.

In order to stop the fighting, I move to the center of the couch which allows Emily to get on one side and Molly to maneuver on to my lap without walking over Emily. We now all sit quietly for ten minutes.

This works for now.

Until it doesn’t work and then I will have to deal with whatever new irritation the girls bring my way.

Peace and quiet will only come when I make peace with my irritations. Those cats are so Zen.