If heaven there is, it is surely with dogs. With Lady and Mukluk and Blizzard and Blue. Beauregard, Suvi, Sir Winston and Trieve. Loki and Merry, Hector, Shiloh, and Trout. There’s Cody and Norman, Tuk, all the Roberts, too. Sweet William, now join them. Godspeed on your way. Muzzle to palm, miss you. Miss you. …
For now, the swish and swish is all there is. The wooden handle of a rake with its metal-tined delta is all that I, who have come soul-tired, need. That, modest strength in my shoulders, and the blue tarp onto which I toss leaves with a swing that despite everything can’t but be joyous. It’s …
We are animals. I don’t mean that figuratively (though given the mud-fest incivility of this election, a case could be made). I mean it literally and to consider in the context of this election. We are blood, bone, brain, and balls, composed of material stuff and animated by love, fear, and the pursuit of happiness. …
The din is deafening. It’s morning at our local SPCA, and all anyone wants to do is get outside. I plan as I drive there. Rico will go first, since his kennel is closest and he “holds it” longer than anyone would think is physically possible. Then, the little pair on the other side, the …
Be a Dog, Get Outside; It’s National Get Outside Day! Read More »
Maybe it’s the way the light falls, illuminating the bed of straw like some upside-down and disheveled halo, all gold and shimmery, on which the baby lies – a baby cow, in this case. Or maybe it’s the calf’s beatific face, alert and looking straight out at us from the center of the canvas. I …
Millet’s Calf, a Newborn Jesus, and God of Earth Read More »
It was the Sunday of a holiday weekend, perfect for an extra long paddling adventure. I took off in the kayak with the wind at my back. I know, I know. Never do that. Always start by going uphill, upwind. When you’re tired, you can still get home. But I figured it would be incentive …
Happy Feast Day of the Ass! No kidding. Animals get short shrift in religious beliefs and practice (apart from the Hindu cow, and sacrifice, of course), so I found it quite wonderful to stumble on an old tradition celebrating the biblical donkey. For a time, Christians seriously honored the animal who brought a pregnant Mary …
Water. Out of the great rivers long ago, mermen of a kind — the Seven Sages — emerged. It was they, ancient Mesopotamians told, who brought the gifts of civilization to humankind. But water was also the amniotic soup of chaos. Only after a god-hero split the sea monster Tiamat in two was life on …
The following meditation on our relationships with animals, the strange expression “to be at the mercy of,” and what the notion of “dominion” may mean when it comes to the animals who live with us just appeared also on HuffingtonPost. I wrote it on the occasion of my old pound hound’s death. Sweet Trout is …
The bard’s “Show Me the Place” song on his new album titled Old Ideas lent an ethereal air to a prosaic errand this morning. The hound I brought home over ten years ago, starving, cut up, and covered in ticks is aging fast, and we’re trying to keep him comfortable. But about a week ago, …
