Time Ship

A few days ago I wrote about a dead sheep and her unborn lambs, and now the other side of the coin. This old dog, a special breed of Maremmani sheep dog, the kind that can kill a wolf that attacks their fold, had given a litter of 10, and it was to everybody’s surprise because she really is no spring chicken that ol’ sheep dog!

Luana, tended every one of them, nursed them, warmed them, cleaned up after them, all because the old dog didn’t have it in her any more to ‘mother’ them fully. I was witness to the beautiful domestic connection between humans and dogs, an ancient companionship that has truly weathered all the tests of time. I am sure that even in the hard fought life of early man dogs were attracted to their fire, and what they could communicate to each other, and that this bond goes back to prehistoric times.

The humble scene here could have been rendered in black and white and would seem to have been made in the 1950’s, or even earlier, so true to type is it. At moments like this, when I’m in the grip of a reflection on our human history, and because of what I am seeing in the present, I don’t think about dramatizing anything, or pushing the frame around to zap the energy in the image, you know, to make a picture!. I find myself just being there, present to the moment, and then, when something in front of me connects with that time ship that I was traveling on, I find the alignment of my feelings and this special moment. And then an image is made.

It doesn’t even have to be a good picture, by whatever our current standards are, as long as it resonates, to me, something about what this picture is about.