Meditation with Maddie

Maddie says, "om shanti."

I've learned a lot about meditation from my mini dachshund,  Maddie. Ten pounds of pure badness in the disguise of the sweetest dog you have ever seen, she just doesn't care about much. This includes my early morning meditation time, which unfortunately directly coincides with Maddie's squirrel hunting time.

It never fails that once I get into my meditation pose and put in my ear phones, she releases whatever squirrel she is terrorizing at the time and jumps on my lap to hang with me until I'm done, if she doesn't get done first that is! At which point  she uses my lotus position as a launching pad and the squirrels are on their own.

 I've learned that I don't have to stop what I'm doing to attend to her every whim and that I can always go back to the breath when she disrupts my zen. Things I try to remember out in the world.