CrankyBuddhist   the learning never ends …

Walking the dog always brings a dharma lesson. Our walks are usually quite peaceful until the last block. Oh, well, except for the time we got attacked by a pitbull while walking past the park. Or, well, the woman who sits by the tennis courts to read late in the afternoon and spits at us, although recently she started carrying a big fat stick that she has started to chase us with while spitting at us. The rest of the walks are usually peaceful.

Until the last block.

I’m probably writing about this because my back is out of whack and has been for a week now. I am at fault for always thinking that people know their animals, that with that knowledge they walk their pets accordingly, and everyone, even the nice dogs should be walking on leash in public.

About a week ago a guy walking his standard poodle aproached us. The dog I walk is fine with other dogs. So I figure if a dog is walking towards us, and his owner hasn’t crossed the street, then his dog must be friendly. OK this is why my back is out of whack, because as the poodle lunged at us, the dog I was walking went on the defensive, taking my back with him.

Anyway, immediately when something like this happens, the critical me tape in my brain cues up and starts to play. I run my usual litany of curses, then when I can stand more than one word expletives I start criticizing the dog owner, the dog, the neighborhood, the town, and it usually takes me awhile to calm down. This is all in my head of course.

So now that I realize this is happening I try and stop my criticisms before they get too far … I’ve caught myself after the first a$$ every now and then, so I am getting better. But it really does take some effort.

As the dog was walking me this morning, as he so often does, we were having a nice peaceful stroll through the Berkeley Campus and then off onto a side street where there were gardeners working.

Dust was blowing and leaves were flying and the noise was, well, noisy.

So it occurred to me to wonder about how much nicer it would be for everyone involved, if people paid their gardeners a little more per hour to not use blowers, mowers, and electric clippers.

Think about it. Raking, sweeping, mowing, and clipping by hand uses no petrol or electricity and makes no noise other than the pleasant rhythm of the clip, clip, clip, or swoosh, swoosh, swoosh … The gardeners are still getting paid by the hour, so who cares if they do twenty houses a day or two? They’d also get a better workout and be healthier for not breathing the fumes or the dust. More people could be employed for longer periods of time.

And, us folk who don’t have gardeners don’t have to listen to it!

Boy, it took a lot of self-control to not write that last sentence in all caps. :)

What’s good for the environment is good for the soul!

While the dog was out walking me on the other end of his purple leash this morning I noticed that a few of the streets we were walking on had StreetSweeping this morning. I was pretty much in pace with the Parking Ticket Man, who was handing out tickets left and right. It’s really easy to forget StreetSweeping Day when it only happens on the 4th Tuesday of the month.

So as the Ticket Man was writing a ticket, the dog and I turned the corner onto the next block where it was also StreetSweeping Day. There were a number of cars still parked on the street and I knew that the Ticket Man was right behind me.

The dog and I decided to do some good :)

We shouted ‘StreetSweeping Day’ twice in as dignified a shout as possible. We told the gardner to move her car. As we made it down to the next block, we mentioned to the guy standing next to his lone car parked on the street that he should move it. Oh, I will, in a minute, he said. Ha, I said, The Ticket Man is right there!

Everyone said Thank You and Smiled.

I’ve already had a good day … and it’s not yet Noon.

It is said (somewhere) that dogs have room in their heads for 1000 words. 1000 words that they will understand what I mean when I say them.

Wait is not one of them.

Whatever I say to the dog, the dog interprets it as being Now.

‘Do you want to go for a walk in a minute?’

‘Yes! I want to go for a walk Now!’ pant, pant.

‘Are you almost ready for dinner?’

‘I want to eat Now!’ licking his chops.

Dogs are such be-here-now creatures. They are so in the moment with their experiences. It’s a treat to experience life this way with him, the dog. It’s much harder to do with another person. There is always an agenda with another person. But with the dog, it is really easy to just slip into the Now.

1000 words. Choose them carefully! And don’t waste one on Wait :)