Lester Manners

I out and out of London this summer, my plan always to leave asap, and to get out into the world. However I have fallen in love with a dog named Bullit, and I wish he could be with me, his next trip will be on my brother’s 50th on August 10th…with Helen, Bullit’s mum, and our tribe…

Bullit the great, with his incredibly massive smile, teeth grinning upwards and his whole demeanour filled with love and gratitude for ALL the small things in life…running outside, walking on grass, going enthusiastically up to his beloved heath, being apart of the world in all its wonder and reverence and not getting caught up in the melodrama of humanity that flails and flounders around the edges of space time, out and up in the arms of war and peace, with humans trajectory all about what one can get from the world owning them something, so my little words this day are all to be with the undeniably love and care I feel for the relationship of dog sharing, and caring, and how it has changed me yet again. To know a Dog, to relate to the wonderful world of animals, dogs, cats, plants, insects, elemental, is all wrapped up in a natural and seasonal homecoming cycle. The dog is god, and this means the dog gets you out of yourself, out of your lair, our of your head, where you procrastinate, indulge, stay stuck in your human environment and that sort of being leads to quite a mess at times. We humans get stuck and get self-centred, preoccupied with how the world is so bad, how the governments are so corrupt, how working sucks, how our relationships with our significant others, are so wrong, and yet when you have the where with with a dog, or animal, you become grounded, able to extend that of which is usually hidden, and the heart opens, the mind is free and the world is at sorts with the husbandry and creativity that comes with going outside, on a walk with mans best friend.

H J M’Mad’ Manners

I grew up with a father who’d more than often or not when on his travails, I’d leap up noticing him with me running after him, excited at the chance of jumping in the vehicle and heading off to some other really nice farm, or somewhere, saying, Daddy where are you going?

‘To see a man a bout a dog…’ was the reply, always and consistent and so a part of the small innocent self would really hope and pray that a dog would be on his or her way into my arms of love, to have and hold, to be with and to grow old, I loved, and love to this day the very essence of having a dog about the place or here in the centre of London, knowing that I have Bullit downstairs at my wonderful neighbours, Helen with her three kids.

We have all become one big share dog, and that dog is Bullit. He is our symbol dog and I have fallen deeply in love. Two years ago, I took him up to the heath, and took him off the lead, he was just under two, and he utterly loved it, yes he ran away straight into the packs of the big walking dogs, with their huge varieties, big ones, little ones, yappy, snappy, and totally chilled, there Bullit would run and make friends, he is the life of the party and his gregarious nature has pushed him out and into the loving trusting arms of all and sundry. I would literally have to peel him out of his group social meanderings and lead him off to Patrick’s Wood, or Witches Wood on the heath and step by step, Bullit became a beloved fan of the wilds of the heath to wonder across the meadows, up and around edges of ponds, into ponds, and beyond the ponds. Bullit and I discovered another element to that magical place and love it with all our hearts.

Bullit up to then had not been off the lead and so bit by bit, I have been training him on the road to go off lead, in our little walks on trails around snatches of paths and parks, alleys and back streets, and then we go to the back of my block and into the secret garden, of which is private, yet accessible to us, we go there, hang with the bees, flowers, foxes and birds. I meditate, he plays with the fountain and ball and we are at a complete happiness only retained by the sheer simplicity of having a dog to share and care about. Bullit has convinced me that apart from the amazing fortune I have of being able to share this Norfolk mix, this bundle of joy, this grain of jane and cheese on toast, that the life we lead on earth is not to be missed by our dramatic self pities, our not good enough and our sabotaging on going persona’s.

The simple and effective beast of nature, the loyal wagging and charismatic dog, is a humbling blessing for anyone and everyone wishing to change their viewpoints on the bigger picture. Bullit is kind, energetic, wild, cuddly, joyful and telepathic. WE talk, we know, we just sense and accept that the walk is the mission, the sniffing, the natural outcome of a dog’s nature, and that to take care of animals breeds good feedback to the small simpleton human with ones complexity and own self importance…its funny because I am a vegetarian, yes, primarily down to the fact that I love animals from the minute I grew up on a farm to the self-awareness that eating animals may taste good, but for me, it leaves me feeling sad, mixed, confused and not satisfied in any way, I just imagine we are eating my adopted dog Bullit or any of the animals I have the great fortune to be blessed with…

Animals, plants, worlds; We humans are abridged to the wonders of all sentient beings, and dogs are so much apart of life on earth. It never fails to amaze me as to how and why humans can just forget because the world many of us inhabit are filled with distractions, and much to do, we forget and more than often just leave our own trajectory into the world externally, and forget that we are so much better when in nature, with nature, apart of nature and so discover from our willingness and passion.

Most men are not cruel, negligible, self-centred, and self obsessed and yet we focus in on that becoming rather abstract from the  whole wellbeingness of being seated embedded in mother nature interventions that ground and guide our imaginations, and grow our hearts into an alchemical and far in landscape that smells, moves, creates and hums, and allows all things to be as they are.

In a nut..life is great with a mutt!