Silent Walk

We walk together but quite often we walk alone together, Dunc's leash stretched out as far as he can get, stepping along briskly beside me, leaving me to my thoughts, allowing my eyes to trace the ridges of clouds which unfold across the western sky, one dark line after another, broken only occasionally by a simple strip of unblemished white. I let him sniff and meander and he lets me lose myself in the sound of my feet on the sidewalk or the grass, or the simple musical snapping of the twig I pluck off the tree we pass, or the stick I crush underfoot. He loves all my attention but he loves me enough to know when I am lost in my own walk. He loves me enough to bask in our silence.

"See how nature––trees, flowers, grass––grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... we need silence to be able to touch souls."