March 23

In bliss there is a kind of silence…and in fulfillment there is darkness, a closing down. Or is it the change of seasons?

Here, by my feet, is my collie. I have dreamed of her all my life and now she is here. When we walk together, she glides silently next to me, but for the moment when she turns her head to bump my thigh, to say, hey. She is a happy girl, she is a gentle girl. She is a collie and all that has come to mean materializes in front of me. There is a wisdom that seems pecliar to the breed. A kind of insight about what is needed, a deep desire to do well, to be of service. It is in the size of her voice and her heart. She is a big dog much of the time, a lion, a whale…

Who are these dogs? Who figure so large in so many heroic stories? The science that says we made them through selective breeding suddenly seems like such a small idea…its more like they were always there, waiting to take form…and we only think we designed them…The truth is simply that we called them out.

Who is a truly a collie person I can’t be so arrogant to say that only those if us who spend our lives studying and working with dogs are the only ones…they show up in all kinds of houses, with all kinds of people, and who is to say that they are not on a mission? But I have seen them in the hands of collie people flourish and bloom like characters from King Arthur… chivalrous, virtuous.

She will teach me a lot about teaching. It’s a whole new game.


I want also to talk about Flynn and how she has responded to Maudie with nonchalant grace and humor. And tomorrow is the Dove Lewis conference…my first official foray into the world of therapy dogs…