A Lesson From A Dog I Met In The Forest

I recall a time when I was living in the canyon that a neighbor who lived well up the hill used to walk her rather frightening looking dog and much as I love dogs, that dog was really scary looking.

I have to say that she seemed to take an inordinate pleasure in letting her dog run around and frighten people and she had been warned numerous times by various neighbors and government groups locally that if she didn't stop that behavior they'd have to take her to task which they did on several occasions.

Well on this one occasion when I was out for a hike in the woods near the trailer park where I was residing, the lady started walking down the hill with her dog and sure enough - she couldn't help herself - looking back at it I can see that this is something that she had become addicted to not unlike we might become addicted to smoking or something else like that.

She let the dog go and the dog raced right for me. Now I've had that occur before and it wasn't a wonderful experience then but I recall when somebody's wolf dog was racing right for me that I did something else that was similar and that is that I asked for energy to come in and I blended with the energy of the land, the trees and all that was around me.

I can't explain why I did that because it wasn't a mental choice. It was that the energy was present and I just blended with it.

What occurred was a interesting situation and that is that the dog - I felt the dog right next to me and I looked down and the dog was looking up at me in the most friendly manner. I reached down and patted the dog and it was as if the dog and I had come to some agreement that the dog didn't have to be aggressive with me - that I was a member of the forest and therefore was in the dog's world.

The lady came down and got next to the dog and said, "Oh that's fun. I love to see him scare people."

I remember at that moment looking at the dog and the dog had this expression in his eyes. You know they express their feelings in their eyes exactly the way we express our feelings in our eyes and there is no question that the look in his eyes was apology and embarrassment.

We've seen that look in people's eyes before - dogs do the same thing. Well she hooked him to the leash and she walked off chuckling. I looked at them walking off and the dog gave me a quick glance back, again a sort of acknowledgment as a fellow of the forest and a last parting slight apology. I nodded at the dog and they walked down the trail.

I thought I'd mention this to you because the experience was one that wizened me to the ways of the world while at the same time I felt that this was something that the dog and I were doing together. The dog was showing me how to be a member of the community I was in and it just so happened that the community in that specific case was the forest.

Is that not a strange tale and yet it may have some advantage for some of you out there. I'm not saying that you should do this or you should do that. I'm just reporting on the happenings of my life here. Goodlife.