you know how sometimes you don’t do something and you don’t do something – and then it’s the perfect time to do it? yesterday was just that time. in a burst of inspiration and a flurry of delight, i joined pinterest.

oh my goodness. you know how much i love quotes, right? pinterest is an ocean of quotable inspiration. i am in love.

(as an aside, this is why i sometimes don’t join things. i am afraid of how much i will love them and of how much time i will give them. someday i will trust myself enough to know that everything ebbs and flows, including my interests, and that spending time on things i love and in places i love is always worthwhile.)

after yesterday’s fun, i just had to make my own piece of quotable inspiration.

plus, now i can finally use the pin it button on my own website!

i could really use a warm day on the beach right about now. (definitely not this beach. this beach is in michigan, covered in ice and snow.) fortunately, the sun came out for a while this morning, so atlas and i went for a nice walk.

what do you do when you miss the sun?

a wordless weimaraner wednesday.

i feel so quiet lately. i also feel rather like a bear; this has been a winter of hibernation. i’m not sure why, but i am embracing it rather than questioning it.

i am doing less thinking and more feeling. deep inside, something is stirring, rising, calling.

if i had to put words to this experience, i would say that i am deepening my practice in following inner guidance.

the trouble (for me, at least) is that this requires an even greater level of trust – in myself and in the universe – and the practice of continual surrender. both of which, i must say, are practices not for the faint of heart. this is especially true when one’s guidance says “be still” over and over and over again. part of me really wants to shake it and say, “i’m not as brave as you think! i’m ready to be done! just tell me what to do!”

but i don’t. i let the feelings rise, and i breathe into them, and then i sink into the resulting stillness. over and over and over again.

i found this cute little kitty in cordoba. if atlas had been there, i imagine she (or he) would have looked less calm. then again, she was safely behind a fence, so maybe not.

i would like to be asleep right now, but i started reading stranger in a strange land. i wish i could remember that i am just not a science fiction fan, unless it’s the kind of science fiction that is like fantasy. like dune. i love/d dune. years ago, a coworker told me i should read dune and i refused, saying that i didn’t like science fiction. finally, i gave in and read it. the next day, i went out and bought all the books in the series.

speaking of book series, my one complaint with fantasy is that it always comes in a series, usually at least a trilogy. so, if i like a book, i have to read all the books right away, and then there goes my time until i’m finished. wait. maybe the problem isn’t that they come in a series. maybe the problem is that i don’t understand the concept of moderation and enjoying things slowly.

we had a 60 degree day today. it was so lovely. i was going to take atlas for a hike but, when we went outside, we found a tiny and scared and lost chihuahua. there went my next few hours. some very sweet people in the apartment complex office helped me catch it. they took it back to the office to rest and eat, and i think it may easily find a home if no one claims it. poor pup. it occurs to me that i have spent a lot of hours catching lost dogs and locating their people. maybe i am building up lost dog goodwill, though hopefully i never need it.

yesterday, i had truffle fries from little big burger. they are now my new gold standard in fries.

i took atlas back to the sandy river delta (that’s where life with splint began) last week for his first off-leash hike since october. he was so happy. happy happy happy. he raced up and down the trail ahead of me.

half of me was happy with and for him. half of me was inwardly wringing my hands and thinking, “slow down, little puppy, slow down. why can’t you be more cautious? what if we just walked. slowly.”

i did manage to keep my thoughts and my hand-wringing to myself. not that atlas would have listened anyway.

in other news, i am pretty sure the hair on atlas’s chin has turned silver. unless it was always silver – it’s so hard to remember. i don’t want my puppy to have silver hair! i know he’s almost ten, but i want him to stay young forever.

isn’t he handsome. i think he is the best and smartest and sweetest and most handsome dog in the whole wide world. (with the exception of your dog, of course. your dog is too.)

“In the eyes of mourning the land of dreams begins.”

– Pablo Neruda

’tis the season for warm beverages. like hot cocoa at petite provence. and cafe au lait at st. honore.

i love him times a million billion and seventy three forty seven.

i want to reach through the screen and wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him on the cheek. which he doesn’t love, but will occasionally tolerate. lucky for me, i can just turn around and do it. shhhhhh. don’t tell him i’m coming!

“Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits.”

– John O’Donohue, in Anam Cara