The Dharma of Dogs | Learning to Love, Lose and Love Again
A love story about a woman and her dog, who taught her to open her heart to loving mightily and losing — and then wanting to love mightily again
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As a young person, I often felt like an alien who was somehow deposited onto planet Earth. From the outside, people couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl (or so they said). On the inside, I wasn’t even sure I was human. Humans seemed so coarse to me, and the world so barbaric. I took refuge in ideas and literature and kept my sensitivity and heart locked away in a very secret place.
Many years later — after dropping out of college, traveling to Asia to study meditation, and starting a publishing company called Sounds True — I met Jasmine, a tall, blonde, floppy-eared cocker spaniel. I was thirty-nine years old. By that time, I had found meaningful work and a certain expansive quietness in the practice of meditation. I had also been in several intimate relationships that didn’t quite take root. What I knew was how to meditate, work long hours, and talk about ideas. What I didn’t yet know was how to feel connected and at home on Earth.
Jasmine became a heart teacher and healer for me, hence one of her nicknames: Dr. J.
She wiggled her way right into the center of my heart, breaking through my outer protective shell in a way that forever changed me.
Jasmine came into my life along with Julie Kramer, who has been my partner in love for the past fifteen years and is now
