Being Present

In my people classes this week I've been focusing on corspe pose, in honor of Halloween and Day of the Dead. It's really an acknowlegment of the cycle of life. It reminds me to try to be completely present in my life with my friends and family and with my dogs. I'm not always successful, but I try. Being present can be challenging in our ADD, multi-tasking world. I even find myself multi-tasking when I'm walking Honey and Gus. Two dogs on their leashes, me on the cell phone, sipping on a latte (I do live in Seattle after all).

But every once in a while, I'll take the dogs down to the beach, during the sunset and just stay present with them as I enjoy the ever-changing, colorful sky. No phone, no coffee, just us. I feel that connection of being fully present and in tune to the energy of my dogs. It's actually relaxing to just be. It's getting to that point of just being that's challenging for me.

It probably sounds strange, but when I'm able to be fully present with my dogs, it allows me to bring that to the people around me. It's like practicing with the dogs for the humans. It's another way to bring my doga practice into everyday life, since so much of doga is being present with our dogis, it's good practice for being fully present at other times. I'm always trying to be aware of what my dogs make me aware of and being present is one of the many things my dogs give to me.

P.S. That's not my thumb on the coffee cup, I'd never let my cuticles get that bad. The real owner of the cuticles shall remain nameless.