I was introduced to Zen meditation 20 years ago and have practiced, on and off, ever since.  I sit zazen for 10 minutes most mornings but wanted to find other opportunities to pay attention to my life.

I live in an apartment with my wire-fox terrier, Dash, who is adamant about twice-daily strolls. There’s a paved rails-to-trails path nearby and we walk approximately 1 mile each morning and evening. The trail winds through a pleasant, woodsy mix of native plants and remnant landscaping but, after a couple of month of twice-daily walks on the same path, I began to think about changing it up to add some variety.

About this time I noticed that Dash never seems to get bored on these walks. He’s always alert to new sights and sounds and scents.  Beginner’s mind, every time. I began to think of him as Inu Roshi (Teacher-Dog), and we’re doing our own version of kinhin (walking meditation) at at sidewalk zendo.

Knowing that accountability can help form and keep a habit, I decided to share some of the thoughts and images from this practice on a blog, which I began in mid-April 2017. I hope you’ll share some of your own thoughts and images here, too.

[Thanks to the following photographers for making their work available for use in this blog’s header via a Creative Commons License:  canopic, samantha durfee, matt knoth, steve scnhabel, laurastyrman, valanzola.t, deb cupples, christine kalina, and zack.