The Best Cat I Never Had

Reflections on my first Dharma retreat

Daisho-in, Japan (photo by me)

Day 1. Evening

I’ve been meditating for only maybe a couple of years now, un-religiously, so I have doubts about this retreat. Sitting on the Zen Center porch, preparing to submit to the community’s rules, I see a golden cat. She bounds up the wooden stairs, springs to the weathered couch, and plops her sandalwood body down next to mine, a whisker…