Life as a Dog Show

First things first - well done to my 5+ year-old girlie, Scylla, for winning 3rd place in conformation. First time she's ever won anything, and we're so proud of her.

Taranis won 1st prize in 4-6 months conformation against some beautiful competition,too:







We were at the Federation show all day.

On the whole, I'm pretty glad that I'm a Perfect Introvert, as it affords me the time to really see my surroundings, instead of making shop- or small- talk with other humans.
There I was, parking off in the cab, nose in Elric of Melnibone again, when I put the book down and look around behind me. A sharply-muscled male Pit was affixed to the fence, barking furiously at every other male who came within a hundred metres of him. I looked at him, he looked at me.
In the hazel green eyes I suddenly saw It: the consciousness of the Universe looking straight back at me.
And I thought:"Who are You?"
And then I thought:"Who am I?"
And then: "What am I?"

And I answered: You are a Lens through which the Consciousness of the Universe is focused.Not my consciousness, not the dog's consciousness - the Consciousness.

For there is only one Consciousness - and we're all swimming in it, all the time.
That Wild Olive tree on my right is also a Lens, and so is the barking, now staring, dog. We are indeed the Universe watching Itself.

It's just that some of us are fine-ground crown glass lenses, and some of us are cracked lenses.Some of us are grubby lenses, and some have become deformed lenses, which can't bring anything to focus properly.
Some of us have so many add-on applications that we can't really tell what it is We are at all,and therein lies all the tragedy of the human animal.
But sometimes, some of us, who have started to have an inkling of What we are, will catch our own reflection in the green gaze of a bored and barking canine, and know that intimacy, all-the-universe to all-the-universe, which we were set up to take notice of in the first place.

Thank you, Life, for teaching me, more each day.