If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.
Barak Obama, 44th President of the United States
One of life’s small pleasures is taking a walk. For me, almost every day, for the last twenty-two years, give or take, I have walked with my dogs. For the past ten and five years, respectively, I walk with my dogs Dexter and Comet. The weather is almost always sunny, though in Summer I have to walk them before 8 AM or after 5PM to avoid the heat. For several years prior to the Pandemic, I would take them on Saturdays to Mission Trails, one of the country’s largest urban parks. Now, when I take them to a nearby park at Lindo lake, it is the social event of their lives. They interact with other dogs, revel in dog smells, give the Canada geese and many other ducks a quick hello. Walking around the lake I frequently get to chitchat with other dog-people. I believe it is both cathartic – I do not have as much stress to get “out” as when I was a commuter worker bee – as it is encouraging to be around people.
Human beings thrive when we have healthy, mutually-encouraging, and mutually-elevating relationships with one another. I believe that is what our Creator wants for us, and has given us a playbook to get in closer touch with Him. But there are close associations that many of us have found, too. Some of the best examples of reasonable, helpful and friendliness, even the introverts, are among dog-people. A companion animal is the best medicine for loneliness, for emotional aid and comfort, and for many with relationship scars, uncomplicated fealty. And for those like me who stand to lose more than a few pounds, daily exercise.
It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching
Francis of Assisi, via brainyquote
Walking daily, can be purposeful, a time to heal, or think; my dogs are helping me on my transcendental journey.
It's a Dog's Life 