Dharmawheels - Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage

Dharma Dog Days – The world according to dog (leondharmadog.blogspot.com) is a blog that grew out of Travels with Dharma Dog, a series of eight paintings and poems based on the daily outings with my dog Nikki, whom many of you have met on this last Pilgrimage. The paintings and poems have also been self-published as a book.

Because Nikki is a Husky, a breed that needs lots of exercise, i.e., running, I take him out every morning for about two hours, covering anywhere from two to ten miles, depending on whether I’m walking, running or cycling with him. More than a daily physical fitness regime, these outings have become great opportunities for contemplation and meditation. The paintings and poems crystallize these experiences into art, while the blog, as such, provides a more direct chronicle of our lives.

Nikki’s role as muse comes from a period of gestation that predates him. He is the most recent in a line of dogs that have inhabited and enriched my life. His role as the “dharma dog” evolved out of years of sharing my life with dogs and in dealing with their loss. Nikki was adopted from a Husky rescue group shortly after the death of Kaleo, also a Husky. By and by, I found that accepting Nikki’s immense joy for the moment as my own was the only way to balance the profound grief I carried for Kaleo. By now, almost two years into his adoption, Nikki’s relationship with me and our family has acquired a distinct character of its own. Dharma Dog Days, by way of chronicling our day to day lives through his eyes, gives a glimpse of how that relationship evolved and where it could be headed. The blog is written in Nikki’s voice, and in writing for him I’ve found my own voice.  In a way, you can say we have a symbiotic relationship.