There are no streetlights lining the roads of our neighborhood. The only light is at the top of the tall pole at each intersection. So when Sam and I step out for our walk a couple of hours after sunset, most of the street is dark, illuminated only by the entranceway lanterns of silent homes … Continue reading Walk #28: Night →

September is made for poetry and song. It’s a melancholy month, tender in many ways, a time for beginnings and endings—the start of new school days and the end of summer’s promises. There are shadows of this in the face of a young girl waiting at the corner just around the block from my home. … Continue reading Walk #27: September Song →

Afternoon naps are always hard. I’m up at 3 a.m. on Saturdays for my radio work, and when I come home it’s tough to not allow myself time with my head on a pillow. Still, the result is seldom as I would like. The naps, although always needed, are rarely restorative and today my body … Continue reading Walk #26: The Seasons of Change →

Sam is quite the creature, certainly unlike most dogs I know, maybe unlike any animal I know—a sleek body, built for running, long elegant legs, but what stands out the most and is more striking than anything else are those astonishing eyes, big and round; the deep color of the irises and the porcelain white … Continue reading Walk #25: It’s in the Eyes →

Sam knows nothing of Richie Havens’ frenetic acoustic strumming, Country Joe McDonald’s “Gimme an F!” chant, or Hendrix’s electrified Star-Spangled Banner. She knows nothing of the bad “brown acid” or how a festival with an unexpected mass of 500,000 people ran out of food and how the miles and miles of standstill traffic closed the … Continue reading Walk #24: Back to the Garden →

The doe stands six feet tall in knee-high brush just off the trail. Its eyes follow me like a cop. Sam is next to me, watching the doe, silently but intently. The deer ignores her; Sam is of no matter. It is only me she studies. “How beautiful you are,” I whisper, my eyes on … Continue reading Walk #23: Of Parents and Children →

There is no walk for Sam this morning until she gets it right. It’s 6:10 a.m. We are in the backyard, facing one another in a standoff. I am adamant and Sam is defiant. Although I’m not sure she knows it. Her attitude is more like rebellion, an obstinate teenager. I’m not going to do … Continue reading Walk #22: The Beauty of Bacon →