Learning from companion animals' natural focus on the present moment as an antidote to human time-anxiety and worry about futures that may never arrive.
Hodja's parables often mock those who worry excessively about imaginary futures or dwell uselessly on the past. Companion animals live entirely in the present—they don't worry about next week's vet appointment or regret yesterday's missed meal. They greet each moment as fresh and complete. This concept explores what we might recover by observing and partially adopting our animals' temporal orientation. Anxiety, the modern plague, mostly concerns futures that haven't happened. Our pets, by contrast, experience a kind of natural mindfulness: when a dog greets you, it's as though you've been gone forever and they're ecstatically present. When a cat settles for a nap, the entire universe collapses into that comfortable spot. Hodja's tradition plays with temporal paradoxes—losing things, repeating failures, finding wisdom in circular returns. With companion animals, we discover that the freedom from time-anxiety they naturally possess is available to us too, if we practice presence alongside them. The examined joyful life means noticing when our pet draws us fully into the present and recognizing those moments as glimpses of a way of being our anxious minds have largely abandoned.
Peri can explain this concept, give practical examples, help you decide whether it applies to your situation, or recommend a journey if appropriate.
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