Stitches and Prayer Beads and Training Dogs

To me, each stitch, when I am knitting or sewing, is a prayer bead – and as with a prayer bead, I am going within as in meditation. This is a peaceful experience that takes me to my core. And from knitting, this extrapolates to other things, like working with the dogs: being at one with the dog I am working with, mind to mind, soul to soul. (see June 18, 2011 Picture the Behavior).

That article was not about being more present in myself, but the illustrations and the idea of clearing our minds in order to successfully work with our dogs is definitely about going within. to teach the dogs, we must clear our minds of all the daily stuff and to be open to "hearing" the dog and "being heard" by the dog -- This is an exercise in going within, and I deeply believe that we cannot train a dog without going within.

My work with the meditation value of handwork teaches me the same thing: we go within to do this work and to teach others to do this work. The work itself ends up helping others since we do our stitch work for people who benefit from the products.