February 2010 Reading

Sunday, 28 February 2010 15:28 Written by Lezlie Laws

Morning Reading (lectio divina):

1.  Radical Acceptance:  Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha,

      by Tara Brach

2.  Telecourse on Integral Evolution of Consciousness.  Weekly lectures, Q&A sessions, and meditation sessions.

3.  Toward a Psychology of Awakening:  Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation, by John Welwood

Later in the day reading:

1.  Unleashed:  Poems by Writers’ Dogs, edited by Amy Hempel

Great fun.  Hilarious poems written from the dog’s point of view.  Will definitely use this in the course.

2.  A Dog Year, by Jon Katz

I think this is my fourth Jon Katz book, and I just love him.  I’ve been reading the books out of order, and this book tells the story of how he came to take on two amazing border collies, both of whom transformed his life and eventually led to the purchase of Bedlam Farm, the topic of a later book.  Here we meet the wild and seemingly untrainable Devon and see how Katz learned to both love him and tame him.  And Homer, the adorable border collie puppy comes on the scene and clinches Katz’s love of the breed and leads him into the life of working dogs. 

   This is classic Katz.  An easy and slightly meandering book that will touch the heart of any dog lover.  At one point, after finally overcoming a particularly challenging period in the training of the hell hound Devon, Katz writes:  “I think of a great marriage that absorbs disruption but endures.”  And this, he says, is exactly what happens between a well-matched man and dog.  On both sides, as the relationship takes hold, disruption is absorbed and love abides.

I’m reading these books in preparation for a course I’m going to teach spring 2011.  So in a way, this is research for me as I try to put together the right combination of text that focus on dogs and what humans learn from them.  But there is something else happening as I read these books, something much bigger than simply putting a course together.  It’s been almost seven years since Ginger died. Ginger was a beautiful bichon frise with whom I shared almost seventeen years.  For four years after she died, I couldn’t even bear the thought of getting another dog.  And then, time does its thing, and I began to soften, to yearn for a dear companion.   I’d started stopping on the street to hug or pet dogs.  I’d watch commercials with dogs in them and cry.  I’d buy dog calendars.  I’d fantasize about how I’d be in the world with a dog now that I lived in Winter Park and close to my work.

     But I keep coming up with good reasons why I can’t do it.  I travel too much.  (I don’t.)  I need a partner to help me with the responsibility of a dog.  (Didn’t have that when I was married, so I’m wondering why I need it now.)  Having a dog is too expensive; I can’t afford it now. (ha)  I don’t want to bring the mess of a dog into my tidy house.  (Oh get over it.)  It’s been clear, even to me, that those are merely excuses, and not real reasons.  So why not get a dog when I love them so much, and I know having a dog would bring love and sweet companionship into my life?  What is being resisted?   

. . . continued in journal

3.  Food Rules:  An Eater’s Manual, by Michael Pollan

What a great little book.  64 simple rules for eating healthfully and sanely for the benefit of the body and the planet.  And all under the rubric of the big three rules:  “Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.”  What a great plan!

     I’m gearing up to do a 33 day raw food blitz on my body (March 3-April 6), so this is a good book to help me get focused and clear on some of the small changes I can make to eradicate deleterious food and eating habits.   Love Michael Pollan.

4. The Ten Things You Need to Eat, by Anahad O’Connor

5.  Yoga Journal, March 2010.

6.  Tricycle, Spring 2010.

7.  River Teeth, A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2009.

8.  Facts About the Moon, by Dorianne Laux (poems)