Found napping under the iphone display at T-Mobile shop
The chap on the other end of the dog lead was happy to talk. This puppy of seven months old will grow up to assist somebody with a disability. Answer the door. Fetch and carry. That sort of thing. He will not be a guide dog for a blind person though. That’s a different kind of training apparently. They are brilliant dogs, awake or asleep!
These puppies are sent away from the institute to live an ordinary family life before returning for intensive training. Napping while out shopping is all part of the training. Lucky dog! His handler was already preparing himself for the moment when they would be separated. He said, I feel better about it knowing that the dog will be helping somebody who really needs his skills.
Here is an extract from a post by Iain of Little House In The Paddy. How I appreciate what he is talking about. Losing ones grip, so to speak, ends up not being such a very bad thing. Causes one to appreciate what having a mental grip actually is.
I always notice in periods like this how much my brain feels as if it has been reduced to scrambled eggs. Vocabulary slips away and the ability to concentrate and think sequentially evaporates. It doesn’t take much to undermine conventional mental processes and that illusion of ‘having a grip’. It is that Freudian distinction between ‘I’ and ‘me’ I suppose, all the ‘I’ functions become undermined as your capacity to concentrate is lost due to fever and with it goes the possibility of keeping a short leash on anxiety, you just have to sit there with who you are and feel rough.
Just five days and I’ll be back on the road, again! This morning I felt like a heavy rock, one not so easy to move. A walk before breakfast with spring tweeting and life getting on and living itself has me moved on. Somewhat.
Down by the river ducklings. Each squatting on a small rock imitating their grown up mother, much like a Tai Chi class. Doing that bird wing thing; twisting their head around, beak under wing, lift up and back and then return head to neutral. Only to repeat the whole move, to ‘do’ the other wing. It’s a après-swim routine I think. There they were, each on their own small rock. Uh! Now one adept is standing on one foot and extending the free leg backwards. Streeeeeetch. Another fancy duck maneuver.
But what of the heavy rock feeling when it’s spring time? A time when the world is opening it’s windows, eating salads and wearing much less. A time to explore, travel, take wing. Give birth.
Spring is attractive for the springy and the streeeeeetchy. Perhaps less so for those with less spring. This is not about age so much, although springiness can diminish with age. More to do with how one regards oneself within time (limited by time?) together with the particular conditions one functions within (limited by conditions?).
Seen as just a fixed point moving through time and conditions we are obviously limited by them. However we are not a fixed point. What is, has already gone. We know , I know that there is a depth from which….we spring! Constantly. The next step into the unknown gives birth to itself. Neat!
Small stone,
big rock,
with or without
wings.
Whatever the
conditions,
there is movement.
What is
has
already gone.
A thought for those who know this truth only too well. After shocks since March 11th earthquake in Japan have been constant.
Census day was Sunday 27th March. Now, all over Britain, people are scurrying to fill in their Census form. This can be done by filling out the multiple page paper form or by completing an on-line form. It is ones civic duty to do this. There is a 1000 pound fine if you don’t.
Where do you normally live? and Who usually lives at this address? Good questions which I tried to answer honestly, using the on-line option. And then before I knew it I’d clicked a button and the form had been submitted. Gone! In my effort to be honest I’d edited myself out of the 2011 Census all together. In the click of a mouse, I was not!
There must be many people, like me, who are not included in the 2011 Census. Homeless people. Traveling people. People who live in non official places. Tree houses perhaps. Not bad company. All the same I’m sad to be not. Not part of this huge data gathering exercise, not officially included as being anywhere on the night of the 27th March.
In Buddhism we regard our country as being one of the four benefactors which allow the peaceful conditions to practice ones religion. In Britain we are fortunate to be free to be Buddhist. The other three benefactors are, ones parents, the Buddha and all beings*. During formal meals there is a verse we recite where gratitude is offered to the four benefactors.
*Correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve not got a scripture book beside me.
