dog walking

5/27/09

Today I watched a man running on the sidewalk. He was clearly a newbie. There was little grace in his running style. His face showed the exertion. It is once again spring and those would be runners/weight loss aspirers are back pounding the pavement. It is not as if I would show any grace if I decided to start running. I’m definitely a walker preferably in nature on the cushioned paths of dirt or grass not the non-forgiving surface of cement.

Each morning I go walking with my dogs who remind me every morning that this walk is a necessity for their well being. With dogs, this is definitely not a power walk. This is a sniff every blade of grass, pee on every scent some other dog has left behind, dawdle and enjoy the stroll kind of walk. They stick their muzzles deep into the grass like it is a freshly cut bouquet of flowers, taking in every possible scent that is covering every stem of that grass. Undoubtedly there are hundreds of scents. When I contemplate how many dogs must pass this same way every day and every one of those dogs stopping at exactly that same spot and doing exactly what my dogs are doing, I wonder if I’m missing something in having such a dulled olfactory sense. What would it be like, I wonder, to be able to scent every human that has walked this same path before me? What would I know about those humans from the scents? Could I tell how big they are? Would I know what they had eaten for their meals?

As they stop for this doggie intimate moment, I stop. I take a moment to look around, breathe deeply, admire the colors of the leaves of the trees against the backdrop of the sky. I can feel my shoulders drop a few inches as the thoughts and plans of the day drop off my shoulders for a moment. I am reminded to live in the moment for just this moment. I can almost hear Eckhart Tolle and Oprah talking about living in the moment as I stop to sniff too. So for countless times during the course of this necessary walk for the dogs I stop and breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. I realize how grateful I am that I am not aspiring to be a springtime runner and how grateful I am that my dogs find it necessary to take this walk every morning. It gives me a chance to stick my muzzle in the air and just breathe deeply.