August 4, 2009 – Lenore is enjoying the rain and floods, and her pile of sticks is growing daily. She is a bit stinky, but she like sit that way, and if you don’t like stinky, get a different breed. The Love Dog loves her, and she inspires me to do the same.
  Speaking of love, Saturday is my birthday and I will spend it with a person I love, Maria at the Poultney Crafts Fair in (East Poultney) Vermont from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Lenore will be joining us. It is wonderful to love somebody, and be loved in return. And I want to write about it.
  Nothing is more fun for me than to go into a shop and say I want to get a present for my girlfriend, and watch all of the support and excitement and advice. Women tell me the same thing all the time.It’s the little things. Listen. Talk. Share the emotion of the experience of being in love.
  This is good advice. I have women friends at the supermarket and in malls and all over town who help teach me how to love, and what it means. It is the small stuff. Wanting to talk. Learning to listen. Making a cup of tea. Washing the dishes. Doing some laundry.
  And it is the big stuff. Sharing the experience of life. Supporting and encouraging one another. Helping each other to anchor life, providing a center that holds even as the world beyond moves up and down.
 Lenore is an important dog to me, because she kept love alive for me when I thought it had died. Her role is different now, but she reminds me to keep love alive, keep the channel open, and remember the small things as well as the big ones.
  Love comes in all kinds of different forms, and I have no patent on it. But I do have a soul connection with a human being, and that is a miracle. It is, perhaps, the most important thing.