From the way dogs thump their tails, invade our laps and steal our pillows, it certainly seems like they love us back. But since dogs can’t tell us what’s going on inside their furry heads, can we ever be sure?
The scientists found that dog owners’ aroma actually sparked activation in the “reward center” of their brains, called the caudate nucleus. Of all the wafting smells to take in, dogs actually prioritized the hint of humans over anything or anyone else.
So the word is out our doggy friends delight in us because…of our smell and what it represents, in their brains. Who would have thought!
There is enough time. Take your time. Take Time. You have all the time in the world. The world is not waiting for you to finish. Not waiting for you to arrive. Finish in your own time. Plenty of time. Honestly. You and time are not in a fight. No rush, No need to finish – you can have more time. As long as you like. Take your time. Please.
I can – do it in my own time. I don’t have to do anything ‘on time’. What’s the rush? Why the hurry? No train to catch (as my mother would say).
One foot steps out and before I know it, the other is there up ahead! It is so easy to get stuck in one’s ways. Rush/hurry, push on, pull back. Not knowing how to stop. To really stop. To decide to; stop, not step, not plan the next.
This is only part of the story. It is a start. A look at myself and my way of going about life. In a rush, in a hurry. It’s words to myself. I know enough to know that fast and slow, rushed and not are ideas which cannot, should not be maxims to live by. Neither fast/rushed nor slow/relaxed can become maxims for or against the ways to go about the day. Circumstances resist concepts. However, (now taking a breath out and a breath in,) being aware of one’s ‘set’, one’s largely unconscious way. Is good.
Thanks to my tea companion of yesterday. Thanks to the reader who sent me an email noticing I’d not posted much recently, and offering merit. And a big thanks to all who subscribe to this blog. If you haven’t done that already it is easy to do. Simply look to the left of your screen, fill in your email address and press the green subscribe button. Your address is safe with me.
Here I am again linking. Linking to a recent blog post by Rev. Alicia on the Precept on Anger. Instructive and speaking to all in a practical way to understand and appreciate where anger can point to.
Turn around
the light
to shine within,
then just return.
Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage
by Shitou Xiqian (700-790)
And do turn around and take a look at the shining light coming from your screen as you read Rev. Alicia’s blog. For the last little while she has been reflecting on and teaching about the Buddhist Precepts. Sitting Buddha Hermitage – Blog is the place to visit, read and take into your Heart.
You can see the full poem Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage here.
It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?
Pat Schneider
Being a bit pushed for time and mind space to write posts it’s so good to have some blog contributions to keep the boat afloat. Well I hope I can be delicate and fragrant, as the Wych Hazel is, under the stress and strain of these in-between times.
Between Winter
and Spring
between now and
what’s up-ahead.
Be patient O ordinary things
be patient with us
as we wriggle and chomp
our ordinary days
Thanks to Diane in Victoria, Canada for the poem and to Mark in the UK for the photograph. He writes thus: The witch hazel in our front garden blossoms in late January / early February. Although everyone writes it ‘witch’ hazel, it’s actually ‘wych’ (as in ‘wych elm’). ‘Wych’ derives from an ancient word meaning pliant, or pliable, and related to ‘weak’. But these fragile petals are unhurt by frost or snow, and on the coldest days they give out a delicate and lovely fragrance. I expect you could work up a teaching from that!
Hope you’re hale and hearty.
Bows
Pliable? “Able to adjust readily to different conditions”
A strength.
