When my daughter was tiny I used to nap when she did since neither of us slept much at night. Our next door neighbour got a puppy and would put him out in the back yard on a lead at about the same time as we napped. He would bark the whole time. It was making me furious. I was exhausted and really needed the sleep. I'd asked the dog's owner several times to put him out at our off-nap times, but she didn't do it. 

I was at my wits ends. I was so tired I was quite sure that a solid month of sleep and food and nothing else wouldn't be enough to regain any version of feeling awake and whole. Then I remembered a story about a violet, who, when stepped on responded by leaving a beautiful scent on the bottom of that person's foot. I was feeling pretty stepped on. I thought about how I too could be a violet. I made our neighbour a card using a wee footprint from my daughter as a picture on the front. She loved babies, including mine, and so I also included a photo of her. I wrote something like: I don't know when your birthday is, but please enjoy this card for today and all days, birthday or not. Then I signed it from my daughter and her mom. Then we walked over and put it in her mailbox.

The dog was never out at our nap times again.
​

The Silence of the Little Things (2)
 
Every morning I take
my wee dog Peace
out into the yard
where he releases the night’s accumulation
of water back into the earth.
OK. Ya.
He pees.
 
Today his tiny friend
Matilda was there
with her grey/white yin/yang face.
 
I crouched to greet her.
With the silence of the little things
she stood on her back feet and smelled my face
her paw almost not touching my knee.
The sweet force of her curiosity
toppled me back
and we laughed
as Peace held the space
and Matilda winked.

originally written October 2015