Sunday, November 29, 2015

How to Be in Love with Life


Good morning, everyone. When I first woke this morning I felt led to read excerpts from Mary Oliver's book, Dog Songs, her paean to dogs and all they offer us. My pal, Buddy, has taught me so much about living life fully, how it is to be in love with life itself. As I have often said before, he is one fine companion. I had a feeling, as I read, it was going to lead me back here. I'm very glad it has. I'd like to share an excerpt that especially spoke to me on this cold but beautiful late November morning ...


"I want to extol not the sweetness nor the placidity of the dog, but the wilderness out of which he cannot step entirely, and from which we benefit. For wilderness is our first home too, and in our wild ride into modernity with all its concerns and problems we need also the good attachments of that origin that we keep or restore. Dog is one of the messengers of that rich and still magical first world. The dog would remind us of the pleasures of the body with its graceful physicality, and the acuity and rapture of the senses, and the beauty of the forest and ocean and rain and our own breath. There is not a dog that romps and runs but we learn from him."

~ Mary Oliver, Dog Songs



Wherever you are, I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday morning.