Permission

You don’t require my permission
To rediscover the history you lost.

You don’t require my permission
To love what you love, or who you love.

You don’t require my permission
To practice your faith,
However you see fit.
As long as no one suffers and dies.

If you want to share the joy
You find when you do that,
I’ll return that joy with joy.
If you want to share peace,
I’ll meet your peace with peace.

But what I expect to find. No matter who you are.
Old or young. No matter what colour your skin is.
No matter what language you speak.

Is beauty.

I may not understand that beauty,
But I know it will be there.

love what you love

Cats vs. Songbirds

(it’s not a fair fight)

There are those who would say that cats are good for songbirds. Survival of the fittest. The strong will survive and adapt, and songbirds will emerge smarter, stronger and fitter as a result of the predations of the domestic cat. But it’s not a fair fight, it never has been.

In a world with humans removed from the equation, predators and prey face similar challenges, age, disease, the need for safe shelter, the struggle for sustenance. But domestic cats, in the main, do not face these challenges.

Domestic cats have distinctly human advantages. They, for the most part, have a reliable source of food, should they fail in the hunt. They have health care, they have a warm safe place to rest. Domestic cats, for the most part, don’t hunt to survive. Like humans, they hunt for entertainment.