It was a crisp morning, temperatures hovering around 40 degrees outside. The house was cold and presenting the prefect morning to stay in bed, cuddled under my plush down comforter. I should have stayed in bed, but I didn’t. I was awake and got out of bed so that Mark could continue sleeping soundly. As always Brodie followed me out of the bedroom. He is noisy – so I was shocked that Mark kept sleeping. Upon waking up Brodie shakes his head repeatedly and his collar with tag make tinkling noises, as he goes into his downward dog position he yawns loudly to let the world know he is awake, and will finally lock eyes with me with a matching audible whine to let me know that I need to plan on making the world a better place for him today. He is loud and wants the world to know he is awake. I am not sure why I thought….meditation would be a good way to spend my morning.
Brodie and I made our way to the kitchen while I pulled on a sweatshirt to hold off the chill. He hopped up onto his spot on the couch and started watching the world go by out the window. I put on a pot of coffee and looked forward to the Zen state that I was about to put myself into.
The word Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 Dzyen (Modern Mandarin: Chán), which in turn is derived from theSanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as “absorption” or “meditative state“.
I am a newbie to mediation and am trying to find my Zen path in life, which is not easy given my Type-A personality, OCD-like tendencies, and “Mach-3 with my hair on fire” approach to life. I got my cup of coffee fixed just right, got my mat out, got my iPad, and settled in the living room for my meditation. I do ‘guided mediation’ because I can’t do it on my own, and while this probably isn’t part of a typical meditative state I choose to drink my coffee on occasional “meditative breaks”. I was completely enjoying my trip into meditation…and then…the sensation of a warm, wet, sandpaper-like tongue on my ear! Either I was deep into mediation or he was stealth – and my ear was his target.
I tried to ignore the ear licking until whining became its companion…I imagine Brodie’s internal dialogue was something like this “why is she just sitting there and not focusing me as the center of her world”. I choose to stay Zen…and focus, keep the mind clear. Brodie sat down on my mat; there we were, side by side, me focused on Zen mediation and he focused on keeping me from a Zen state. He decided to try a new tactic….sitting in my lap. Why not? My lap was open; I was sitting cross-legged with my arms outstretched to my knees and the traditional thumb to forefinger pose. He just knew he could make it into my lap. He tried to come in sideways, but with my arms outstretched and serving as barriers, that tactic failed. He tried to do his ‘spin’ and turn himself into my lap, but missed and landed just shy of my lap. He couldn’t figure out the spacial relationships required to get into my lap. The easiest process would have been to back-up into my lap, a straight shot, just move his entire body backwards a few steps and calculate the space between his butt and my lap to make this happen. Epic failure on his part….he cannot back up and hit a target for his butt. Impossible feat for his brain!
At this point I started to giggle but remained frozen in my pose. I certainly wasn’t in a meditative Zen state, but was having a great morning. Ultimately he never figured it out and decided instead to go back to his side-by-side approach to being near me. One more kiss to my ear and he was down on the mat, accepting his defeat, and allowing me to finish my meditation and my coffee. Later, after I was done and had moved on to reading the newspaper, he took full possession of my yoga mat. I will continue my trips into mediation and will try to keep my lap Labrador free as I make those trips!
brandinarvaez
Living with a Labrador 