Improvements, updates, and expansions continue at THE CAT'S MEOW, and on our website. Our popular galleries of F*R*E*E clip art continue to grow. (We now have over 40 pages of cute kitties, website decorations, backgrounds and emoticons to share!) We've also added several NEW pages, including one with "everything Cat", from veterinary advice, toys, tags, and cedar cat houses to flash greetings and advice on becoming a professional breeder.
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A Proverb is a well known saying which, when spoken or read, rings with truth, depth and a call to personal application. The Biblical Book "Proverbs" was written by the wisest (and richest!) man in the world, King Solomon, who also wrote one of the most sensual books in the Bible, Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon).

The Proverbs I chose were collected from all over the world and all have "love" as a theme.

As you read through the Proverbs, your challenge is to choose one to use as a framework for pondering, reflection, contemplation, creative journaling, poetry or art.

Allow the message to seep into your veins and find its way towards your heart and back out into your being and then be sent out from you, with your personal thumbprint, to others.

1. One who loves the vase loves also what is inside.
African Proverb

2. In order to really love someone you must love him as though he was going to die tomorrow.
Arabian Proverb

3. Where there is love there is no darkness.
Burundi Proverb

4. Love and let the world know, hate in silence.
Egyptian Proverb

5. When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow.
Ethiopian Proverb

6. The first love letters are written with the eyes.
French Proverb

7. An old one who is loved is winter with flowers.
German Proverb (also attributed as a Portuguese Proverb)

8. The heart that loves is always young.
Greek Proverb

9. Love is like fog -- there is no mountain on which it does not rest.
HawaiianProverb

10. It is love that makes the impossible possible.
Indian Proverb

11. Love rules without rules.
Italian Proverb

12. Where there is love, there is peace.
Myanmar Proverb

13. Love makes labor light.
Dutch Proverb

14. A heart in love with beauty never grows old.
Turkish Proverb

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Julie Jordan Scott is a Personal Success Coach who is dedicated to creating Heaven on Earth through inspiring people to Discover their Passion so that they can live a life of their choosing. Visit www.5passions.com for free resources for YOUR success.
Contact Julie now to bring YOUR vision to life today. ph: 661.325.4116
or email julie@5passions.com To request your complimentary coaching session, complete this simple form:http://www.5passions.com/coachingreqform.html

Lessons in a Greater Love

Lessons Only Love Can Teach

-- Guy Finley

(Excerpted from Seeker's Guide to Self-Freedom, Page 126)

One of my favorite written works of all time is "The Prophet," by Kahlil Gibran. Born in Lebanon in 1883, his mystical poetry and art express the deepest impulses of man's heart and mind, and when I find myself searching the depths of my own being for answers, I can always find "truth" in his words. In "The Prophet," he speaks to many aspects of life... the one shared below is that of Love...

And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said: When Love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you, yield to him...
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may would you.
And when he speaks to you, believe him...
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the North wind lays waste to the garden.

For even as Love crowns you, so shall he crucify you...
Even as he is for your growth, so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn, he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All of these things shall Love do unto you so that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But in your fear, you would seek only Love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better that you cover your nakedness and pass out of Love's challenges, knowing that you have not the courage to experience its rewards... and continue living in the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not, not would it be possessed...
For Love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God." And I think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and your needs have desires, let them be your desires, and expect not that they be returned in favor, for those needs and desires are another's: You should simply melt and be like a running brook that sings it's melody to the night, for you will doubtfully know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

To know this depth of love in any lifetime is to find that oneness which will forever dwell within you as. You will know when you feel "home..."

"Whatever the question, love is the answer."
---Eva

Reprinted from Coach Eva's Pearls of Wisdom

Everyone in the apartment complex I lived, knew who Ugly was. Ugly was the resident tomcat. Ugly loved three things in this world: fighting, eating garbage, and shall we say, love.

The combination of these things, combined with a life spent outside had their effect on Ugly. To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was a gaping hole.   He was also missing his ear on the same side, his left foot appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and healed at an unnatural angle.

`His tail has long since been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch. Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby striped-type, except for the sores covering his  head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs. Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. "That's one UGLY cat!!"

All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave. Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around feet in forgiveness.

Whenever he spied children, he would come running, meowing frantically , bumping the palms of their hands, begging for their love. When you picked him up he would immediately begin suckling on your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.

One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor's huskies. They did not respond kindly, and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could hear his screams, and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to him, it was apparent Ugly's sad life was almost at an end. Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front. As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I heard him wheezing and gasping, and felt him struggling. I must be hurting him terribly I thought.

Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear-lobe. Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. I pulled him closer to me, and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring.

Even in the greatest pain, that ugly battled-scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some compassion. At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen.

Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain. Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.

Ugly taught me more about giving and compassion than a thousand books, lectures, or talk show specials ever could, and for that I will always be thankful. He had been scarred on the outside, but I was scarred on the inside, and it was time for me to move on and learn to love truly and deeply. To give my total to those I cared for. Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, but for me, I will always try to be Ugly.

Reprinted from Life's Adventures