A dog walk is not unlike meditation. I walk the sidewalks, breathing the fresh air, admiring the trees and flowers, the prancing of my smiling dog. Happy in the moment. Inevitably I start thinking, I get on a train leaving the station of my mind. The tunnel out of the station is dark, or maybe there is open sky. But then I bring my eyes to my dog, and I see him happy in the moment. I stop the thinking, I breath in the fresh air, I watch the wind ripple in the leaves and then feel it on my face. I look at the greenness of the grass and watch dog paws prance through it, sometimes stopping with a contagious happy grin. I stay in present moment and then start walking on the grey sidewalk, and my mind has gotten on another train, speeding down the track, thought thoughts thoughts. The fresh greenness of the world collapses into the past, or future or a fantasy or possibility or want or desire. But then I look back at my dog, he's stopped to sniff a patch of grass. I lean back in my heels, feel grounded on the earth, breath again, look at the trees, there is no place to be, but here. I'm back in present moment.
Dog walk meditation is where you use your dog as the focus to bring your awareness back to. Sure, my mind will go off on its various tracks, and it will come back home to Mr Dog. Mr Dog, a mediation anchor, reminding me to breathe and enjoy the present moment.
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