On Days of the Dog Star
- Caroline Mauldin
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
Think of times when beauty, love, and joy have surprised you. Know that their shared home is uncertainty.
Hi friend,
I was planning to start this month’s newsletter with a fleeting reference to “the dog days of summer.” Then I realized I don’t actually know when those days are; nor do I know why the warmest days of the year are associated with an animal that [at least in the case of our pup, Beignet] doesn’t particularly like the heat… Thus began a meandering journey through the Interwebs in which I learned that:
The dog days of summer have in fact come and gone (July 3-August 11! This is shocking to me on multiple levels);
The idiom refers to a period of time when the sun “occupies the same region of the sky as Sirius,” also known as the Dog Star.
Sirius is the brightest star visible from any part of our beloved planet–a fact I should have remembered from middle school science?
Ancient Greeks and Romans spoke of “the days of the dog star,” which I will henceforth be bringing back into modern parlance.
So here we are, the days of the dog star behind us, the summer light dwindling, and September’s shifts at our doorstep. As you know, I have much to say about this transitory time of year, but I’ll save those notions and contemplations for next month. In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy a collection of quotes that have stayed with me over the years.
Onward,
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be oneself.
You are the sky. Everything else–it’s just the weather.
Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own the environment, the phenomenal world around you. You must be able to freely move in and out of your mind. This is being free. There is no way you can’t open up your creativity. There is no ego to speak of. That is my belief.
The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. Only he who listens can speak.
For the Earth to stay in balance, for the gifts to continue to flow, we must give back in equal measure for what we are given. Our first responsibility, the most potent offering we possess, is gratitude.
The starting place for any generous interchange is humility–the ability to admit not knowing, the willingness to be wrong, the capacity to admit our weaknesses, wounds, and imperfections and not feel mortally flawed or fall apart.
Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
May you hold all your feelings with compassion and curiosity.
-Buddhist blessing
Sure, we have the dog days of summer… but have you heard of the feline days of fall?
Credit: Zeppelinmoon
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