Who's Walking Who? Poetry in People AND Dogs

 

This is one of those quite simple sights -- just a woman walking her dog in the early morning hours as the snow was falling steadily. And it was pretty damn cold. Look at this picture and one may see obligation; drudgery; a chore that is unenviable. But maybe it takes a dog owner to see a different poetry in this moment; to feel the reciprocity of gifts being exchanged here. 

Whether the pandemic has induced it or exacerbated it for people, depression is rampant. There are days when too many of us ache at the thought of having to get out of bed in the morning and face another day. The inescapable routine, the fears that seem to taunt outside our doors; the unknowing -- it weighs heavy on us.

Were it not for our dogs -- the members of our families that we love as equally as we do our children, brothers, and sisters -- we might find excuses to stay walled up. For our dogs, we wake and we rise. For our dogs we emerge and engage with the world. And as soon as we do, we realize: This day is a gift. Outdoors is a gift. The cold and the snow; the sun and the heat; all is an opportunity to find beauty and peace.

Finding people to observe during the pandemic has been difficult. But these are the people that are consistent through storms and pandemics, alike -- the dog owners. And in these moments, there is poetry of an intimate exchange. 

I've see a bumper sticker every so often that has a picture of a dog's paw print and reads, "Who rescued who?" And here, too, we might ask, "Who's walking who?"