I’ve always felt that dogs are my spiritual partners more than they are my pets. They mark the passages of my life,  teach me the meaning of patience and acceptance, and walk by my side as I navigate my life.

Gus and Bud were the first small dogs I have ever had, and I think the small dogs can  enter our spiritual lives in a different way, mostly because they can go places other dogs can’t.

Their work seems to be getting close to humans and soothing them. In recent weeks, I’ve started a new and important spiritual practice, I call it the Healing Hour, or sometimes, the Quiet Hour.

Late in the afternoon, I lie down in a big soft chair in the living room, I usually put my earbuds in and listen to music in my Iphone, sometimes pop, sometimes old rock, sometimes rap or Gregorian Chant.

This week, I’ve been listening to an album by Jeremy Dutcher called Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, it is especially beautiful.

I sit in silence, alone. Maria is in her studio working on her art, Fate is usually with her in the afternoons. The animals have been fed for the final time in the day, if it is bitter cold, the barn cats are in the basement, dozing and chasing mice.

This time of year, my hour begins in the light and ends in the dark. It is a beautiful, peaceful, healing time for me, a time to be alone, to think, maybe to heal, we humans are always healing if we are open to it.

Sometimes I drift off to sleep and dream, usually I just let my mind go where it wants to go, rather than were some device tells it to go.

Bud usually starts the hour by lying next to the wood stove, sleeping quietly. Sometime during the hour – my eyes are usually closed – I feel a sudden pressure on my stomach or my chest. It’s Bud, he has come up to rest with me, and be close to me. He slowly lies vertically up my stomach and across my heart. he rests his head near my shoulder, and watches me for a minute or two and then drifts off to sleep.

This is something Red would never do, jump up on me like that. He is lying by my feet, still, he knows how to be around me.

We both stay this way in the quiet and peacefulness until my phone alarm goes off and it’s time for me to get up, get back to work, or start thinking about cooking dinner.

I have come to love this hour of rest and quiet, it has become a sacred time for me. Writers desperately need some quiet and space just to think, that is precious time in our world.

I must be honest, I love Bud’s visits, they seem very spiritual to me, as if he is joining in my spiritual hour. I don’t see how that could be, but that’s what it feels like, and that’s the thing about dogs, you can put whatever you wish onto them, and if they can, they will rise to it.