Dogs live in the moment, and we can learn from that. They find the sun, they go within themselves, and they seem to find peace, at least some of them some of the time. I am working again on training. Lenore has gotten into the habit of running into the woods to eat dead deer parts and she doesn’t come. I started yelling at her of course, and then reminded myself, with a good and responsive dog like this, whose fault is it that she isn’t coming? Mine. So I’m back to the Ziploc bags and treats and doing basic obedience – come, sit, stay – and she is responding. How much a mirror of us they are, how consistently at fault we are when we lost our patience and yell rather than doing the painstaking and time-consuming work of communicating well with them. Whenever I yell at a dog, I know it is time to shut up and start thinking about what I am doing. In this way, they have improved me. Taught me to be more patient, to listen and think.

I was much inspired by the Zen Photographs of Thomas Merton and went out and took a few I think. I’ll post them later. It was affirming to see that he went after so many of the same subjects I cherish.