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07

May

Time Travel Adventures

by Joyce McGreevy on May 7, 2018

Skydivers over Queenstown, New Zealand inspire the author to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © New Zealand Tourism)

There are many ways to fly to Queenstown, New Zealand. 
© New Zealand Tourism

Finding New Perspective
in New Zealand

Do you remember Tuesday, April 3, 2018?  I don’t. I never experienced it.

A man, with his dog, who has slept through the alarm may soon wish he could time travel. (Image © iStock/WebSubstance)

No, I didn’t forget to set the alarm.
© iStock/WebSubstance

 

A woman falling on the ice inspires thoughts of time travel adventures. (Image © iStock/Astrid860)

Nope. Wasn’t in a coma.
© iStock/Astrid860

I just had one of those time travel adventures.

Crossing the Line

Every day, thousands of westbound airline passengers leapfrog over an entire day. They take off from, say, Oakland on a Monday and land in Auckland on a Wednesday.

Yet only 14 hours have passed.

Which really crosses a line.

No, really. It’s what happens when you cross the International Date Line. The line is imaginary, but the effects are real.

Global Gazing

Remember when everyone’s home had a globe? In the 1960s, advanced technology meant that through the magic of electricity and a toggle switch, a globe could light up from the inside. Whoa!

An illuminated globe inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © iStock/Vrobelpeter1)

As a child, I found globes illuminating.
© iStock/Vrobelpeter1

If you were a kid back then, you gazed in awe at the illuminated raised relief, marveling at mountains and the depths of the bright blue oceans.

And wondered what that line meant.

Dust off that globe now and you’ll see that the International Date Line isn’t a fixed line. It zigzags giddily to either side of 180 degrees longitude like the wake of a drunken sailor.

A map showing the International Date Lines illuminated globe inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image in the public domain)

In 2011 Samoa skipped Dec. 30 by “moving” to the NZ side of the International Date Line.

If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Wednesday

Some of Magellan’s sailors probably thought they’d knocked back a pint too many after their own time travel adventure in 1522. As Antonio Pigafetta reported:

On Wednesday, the ninth of July, we arrived at . . . Santiago . . . And we charged our men in the boat that, when they were ashore, they should ask what day it was. They were answered that to the Portuguese it was Thursday, at which they were much amazed.

So amazed that, once Magellan’s impeccable record keepers figured it out, they sent a special delegation to alert the Pope. He, in turn, was so amazed that he called a conference. A mere three centuries later, the International Date Line became official. The boundary between one day and the next was set.

Racing to Places

By definition, travel is moving from one place to another place. Like a token on a game board, you advance from Country A to Country B.

For some, travel is a competitive game. Recently, travel magazines profiled a woman whose mission is to become the fastest person to visit all 195 of the world’s sovereign countries.

A woman racing toward travel symbols inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © TK)

“Let’s see, 195 countries times 3.5 hours per airport plus x hours per flight . . .”
© iStock/PRimageFactory

Places in Time

But travel is also about time. Exploring it, experiencing it.

Time travel lights up the raised relief map of your brain, revealing the Valley of Jet Lag and the Mountains of Giddy Realization: I’m here! I’m on the other side of the planet!

It toys with your internal clock, making you narcoleptic at noon, insomniac at midnight, and ravenous at four a.m.

It makes you silly: “Greetings from the Future!” you text your family, who are back in that earlier time zone.

A text message about coffee in Christchurch, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Even 7, 241 miles apart  . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

A text message about coffee in Lincoln City, Oregon inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Carolyn McGreevy)

. . . sisters have coffee together.
© Carolyn McGreevy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It makes you grin: As a traveling freelancer in New Zealand, you’re one day ahead of U.S. deadlines. Yippee!

It makes you hyper-aware: After clearing customs in Auckland, you enter the bustling airport café. It’s 5 a.m. local time, yet the woman who hands you a mug of coffee sings, “Here you are, lovey” with a bright-eyed smile.

A night skyline of Auckland, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Auckland, New Zealand as seen from Devonport across the harbor. 
© Joyce McGreevy

It makes you think: While you were snoozing over the South Pacific, she was catching her bus in Manukau, the dim silhouettes of suburban bungalows slowly un-fuzzing as dawn edged over Hauraki Gulf to etch steel and glass towers against the sky.

Oh, I see: Below the surface of what we experience and exchange lie the complex route maps of all our time travel adventures.

A Planet for All Seasons

In crossing the International Date Line, I’ve also crossed from the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere. Like other imaginary map lines, its effects are real. As I write this in May, it’s autumn in New Zealand.

Autumn leaves at the River Avon in Christchurch, New Zealand inspire an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures.(Image © Joyce McGreevy)

“April in Paris” celebrates spring, but in Christchurch, New Zealand,
April is the middle of autumn.
© Joyce McGreevy

Across New Zealand, forests are ablaze with autumn, their vibrant leaves glowing against snow-capped volcanic peaks. New arrivals from the Northern Hemisphere say, “Oh, the seasons are reversed.”

But are they? Or is this another example of Earth’s symmetry? As spring surges toward summer in one half, autumn yields to winter in the other half.

As Earth’s seasons perform their balancing act, we humans seek an impossible balance between defying time and deferring to it. What if we simply observed its presence and its passage?

ake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures.(Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Reflecting on seasonal change at Lake Tekapo in New Zealand’s Mackenzie Basin. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Imagine if your travels through a place were moment-to-moment.  Imagine that, in the time it takes for the world’s fastest traveler to blaze a record-breaking trail through dozens of countries, you were still meandering along, savoring the slowly shifting here and now.

World’s Slowest Traveler?

The number of countries I’ve covered in 5 weeks plus the number I’ll visit in the next 7 add up to a grand total of (drum roll) . . . one. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share stories of New Zealand, from its staggering natural beauty to its wonderful people.

A starry sky in Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand inspires an author to consider the true nature of time travel adventures. (Image © Daniel Rood and New Zealand Tourism)

Stars seem closer to Earth in Castlepoint, Wairarapa, New Zealand. 
© Daniel Rood/New Zealand Tourism

Until then, imagine that each of us was traveling on the surface of an illuminated globe. Imagine that every night we sailed through an ocean of stars, and every morning we woke up in a place of new possibilities.

Just think of all the time travel adventures we could have.

An antique clock inspires an author in New Zealand to consider the true nature of time travel. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Even clocks need to unwind sometimes.
© Joyce McGreevy

Why is New Zealand vanishing from world maps? Solve the mystery in this hilarious video featuring NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Adern, here.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Adventure Travel/Crossing Cultures/New Zealand/Secrets to Life

30

Apr

Healthy Recipes for Your Body and Spirit

by Meredith Mullins on April 30, 2018

A spinach and polenta gratin, one of the healthy recipes from Chef Hubert Hohler, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

A tribute to healthy eating: Spinach and polenta gratin

A Cultural Encounter with Healthy Eating

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are—Brillat-Savarin

Our eating habits and cooking strategies often reveal something about us.

Since I find this revelation to be true for myself, I’m sharing a story about inspiration . . . and how eating and cooking patterns can be influenced after experiencing life-changing OIC moments.

Green wild herb soup with flowers, a soup for healthy eating showing a cultural encounter with healthy recipes. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Wild herb soup—made with nettle, dandelion, and wild garlic
© Meredith Mullins

A Fasting Tale

Full disclosure. I am not a cook. I am also not a particularly healthy eater, which I conveniently blame on genetics. However, twice a year I go to the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany for a cleansing fast. (See OIC story.)

I come away with much more than a new lightness of being (physical, mental, and spiritual), a rested digestive tract, and the joy of fasting euphoria (although those treasures alone would be worth the trip). I see my visit as a cultural encounter with good health—in the moment and for the future.

A range of vegetarian healthy recipes, showing the cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

A variety of choices for healthy eating
© Meredith Mullins

I am inspired to continue the program of healthy eating and to actually take the giant step of preparing some of the recipes that I have been shown. I also look forward to practicing some of the tips introduced in the demonstrations and lectures.

Salad with sprouts and apples, a healthy recipe from Chef Hubert Hohler at Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Sprout and apple salad—so fresh, so easy
© Meredith Mullins

First-Time Memories

I pause here to mention that the first time I came to the clinic, I was not especially embracing the idea of fasting. I updated my will before I made the journey and said goodbye to friends and family as if it were the last time I would see them. I was not convinced I would survive.

I had never fasted before, and had visions of hunger, heartburn, and hallucinations. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised.

Vegetable soup from chef Hubert Hohler at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi fasting clinic in Germany, a healthy recipe for fasting, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Garden vegetable soup for a fasting dinner (you come to love it!)
© Meredith Mullins

It seems I was a natural. No hunger. No heartburn. And only a few hallucinations on the famous Day 5 of the fast (where they say one often begins to feel the fasting high).

At the clinic, it’s not just about what you are eating (or not eating). It’s about a total reset of your body so that healthy eating becomes a natural rhythm once you return to the outside world.

Chef Hubert Hoholer of Buchinger-Wilhelmi Clinic in Germany, a chef sharing healthy recipes for a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Chef Hubert Hohler explains the reason for minimizing oil in cooking.
© Meredith Mullins

A Spirit Guide with Heart

A large part of that healthy food experience comes from the heart of Chef Hubert Hohler. He has been with the clinic for 25 years and brings passion, exacting standards, and joy to his job.

He also is an expert in plant-based cooking with pure organic materials, and shares his knowledge with clinic guests via twice weekly cooking demonstrations.

Pan with zucchini and rosemary, a healthy recipe from chef Hubert Hohler of the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Chef Hohler’s advice: Sauté with no oil. Just herbs and the natural liquid of the vegetable.
© Meredith Mullins

Chef Hohler is a good role model for clinic guests. He understands the fasting process, as he has fasted every year for the past 30 years. And, most of all, he loves to cook.

He is dedicated to creating delicious healthy organic food—the tasty broths for fasting and the vegetarian meals to lead in and out of the fast or for people who prefer just a low calorie healthy program.

chef Hubert Hohler at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Making fennel sauce or soup—you can decide after the basic preparation.
© Meredith Mullins

He visits other cultures and brings the best of those worlds to his recipes. He experiments constantly, all with a goal of increasing the health value of the food. And he knows that certain recipes, the ones that long-time guests look forward to, should remain as is. It is not necessary to make them “new.”

Soufflé with vegetables, one of the healthy recipes from Chef Hubert Hohler at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

A favorite: the easy-to-make quinoa or cottage cheese soufflé
© Meredith Mullins

Five Basic Tips for Healthy Eating

Here are five tips I’ve learned at Buchinger-Wilhelmi from Chef Hohler (with a reminder that I’m not a cook, so I have much to learn.) I am happy to report that these have now become a part of my everyday healthy-eating processes.

  1. Control oil (quantity and quality). Sauté vegetables without oil, as the natural liquid in the vegetables is sufficient. Add a touch of oil to your dish at the end to give taste. Make use of a variety of quality oils. For example, use almond oil to sweeten a bitter taste or walnut oil to add astringency to something sweet.
  2. Use natural sweeteners rather than sugar. Ripe fruit serves as a sweetener (bananas, apples, apple juice).
  3. Create salad dressings using blended vegetables (avocado, carrots, tomatoes) to minimize fat and calories. (Try the avocado vinaigrette in the free recipes below.)
Salad with avocado vinaigrette dressing, a healthy recipe from Chef Hubert Hohler, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

The avocado vinaigrette dressing with a touch of tomato to change the taste and color
© Meredith Mullins

4. For soup or sauce, start with the basics: onion, potato, and a vegetable. The only difference between soup and sauce is the amount of liquid in relation to the vegetables and the fact that a soup must stand on its own, while a sauce accompanies something to complement it.

5. Use fresh herbs for seasoning rather than salt. As you think about seasoning, taste to see what you’re missing on your tongue’s taste buds (sweet, salt, bitter, sour). In other words, don’t just add salt. Be more creative. Think about what herb or spice can add the missing taste.

OIC invites you to download the special free recipes below for practical ways to use these tips.

A bouquet of wild herbs and flowers to be used in healthy recipes for a cultural encounter in healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Everything in this bouquet can be used in cooking.
© Meredith Mullins

Beyond Tips and Recipes

In addition to the tips from Chef Hohler, his spirit of cooking organically is everpresent. He is careful about all the products he uses. He knows the producers and what processes they use. And he relies on seasonal products to ensure the freshest of ingredients.

From his time as a teenager helping to harvest his family’s asparagus crop, he has learned to appreciate the work behind products.

White asparagus in a pot, one of the healthy recipes of Chef Hubert Hohler of the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Even though Chef Hohler had to wake up at 5 am to harvest his family’s white asparagus,
he still loves to cook with it.
© Meredith Mullins

He looks for producers who really care about what they’re doing. If something is grown with love, he feels that the love will be noticed. And, then, when the kitchen also prepares the food with love, he believes that combination is a real treasure for those who are eating.

Chef Hubert Hohler at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany demonstrating healthy recipes for a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

A cooking demonstration that tempts all the senses.
© Meredith Mullins

A Change in Everyday Rhythms

Yes, it may be difficult to watch a cooking demonstration when fasting. After all, those wonderfully fresh vegetables and fruits seem very different from the broth for dinner. And the smells from the demo seem to touch all the senses in a cruelly heightened way.

Piece of lavender cake from the healthy recipes of chef Hubert Hohler at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi clinic in Germany, showing a cultural encounter with healthy eating. (Image © Meredith Mullins.)

Yes, desserts are allowed after the fast, so try this lavender cake with a pear topping
© Meredith Mullins

But what this theatre of food preparation is actually doing is providing a look into the future. This is what I’ll be doing when I leave Buchinger-Wilhelmi (albeit not in quite as nice a kitchen).

The sights and sounds and smells have found a way to some deeper place. This cultural encounter with healthy eating will now be a part of my everyday rhythm.

Ready for some easy-to-make, delicious, healthy food?  OIC offers this free download of favorite recipes for healthy eating from Chef Hubert Hohler. 

 

Thank you to the Buchinger-Wilhelmi Clinic for this inspiration for healthy eating.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

 

Cultural Encounters/Germany

24

Apr

The Dogs on the Bus

by Joyce McGreevy on April 24, 2018

Meg Vogt, creative thinker and owner of Dogs Rule! welcomes canines on her dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Dog’s Rule! is a (p)awesome bus service based in Sullivan’s Gulch, Portland, Oregon.
© Joyce McGreevy

Creative Thinking for Canines
in Portland, Oregon

Driving with a 12-pack isn’t usually the smartest idea. But when the “12-pack” is a dozen adorable dogs, it’s genius.

Meet creative thinker Meg Vogt, affectionately known as the Dog Bus Lady of Sullivan’s Gulch. When Meg launched Dogs Rule, a bus service for dogs in Portland, Oregon, the locals really got on board.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt and dogs on the bus pose for a “pack portrait” in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Ryan LaBriere)

The dogs on the bus go woof-woof-woof all around the town—en route to leash-free parks.
© Ryan LaBriere @LabrierePhoto

Dogged Devotion

Throughout her life, Meg has solved canine challenges that would overwhelm most people.

Consider Mr. Diego.

Viciously attacked as a puppy, Mr. Diego was soon making his mark on the world—specifically on its inhabitants. But Meg, who was then a dog walker, spent years working through his issues, gradually enabling him to socialize peaceably.

Mr. Diego the white Scottie went from troubled pup to poster dog thanks to Meg Vogt’s creative thinking. (Image © Meg Vogt)

By 2015, Mr. Diego had become the poster pooch for the local humane society. 
© Meg Vogt

Chelsea, a retired police dog, had degenerative myelopathy. Every morning, said Meg, she’d “ease the dog’s rear end into a special wheelchair and drive to a park where Chelsea could chase after squirrels.”

“We totally bonded. Still, I told myself that when Mr. Diego and Chelsea passed, I would move on to a real job. But there was no way. I had all these soul connections with dogs.”

After a series of remarkable careers—paginator at USA Today, audio engineer, video producer, camp counselor, radio show host, and concierge, Meg had found her real job.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt, Max the poodle, and Grendel the Irish wolfhound howl for fun on the dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Meg, Max, and Grendel practice howlistic therapy.
© Joyce McGreevy

How Much Is That School Bus in the Window?

In 2008, Meg bought an old school bus and figured out how to operate it on the drive home. She parked it beside the house that she shares with her very supportive wife, Deb (“Not a Dog Person”) Bridges. Then she invited the neighborhood over.

Families, children, and other creative thinkers paint the Dog Bus in Sullivan’s Gulch, Portland, Oregon. (Image © Meg Vogt)

Sullivan’s Gulch neighbors gather for a paint-and-pizza party.
© Meg Vogt

The dog bus was born. And wow, did it ever bus a move. Who let the dogs out? Oh, I see: In Portland, Oregon this is not a rhetorical question.

Blue Rover, Blue Rover

Recently, I joined Meg on her rounds. Our destination?  Thousand Acres—open land, berry bushes, and a delta. It’s off-leash paradise.

Because her passengers lack opposable thumbs, Meg uses house keys that clients entrust to her. Eagerly anticipating their day out, the dogs trot to the bus door, race up the steps, and take their usual seats.

Dogs of several kinds board the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Why chase your tail when you can catch a bus?
© Joyce McGreevy

It’s Spring Break. Several dogs are on vacation, taking their humans with them, so we’re down to a six-pack and a bonus pup.  Our seven riders range from petite Moe to a pony-sized Irish wolfhound named Grendel. (Which technically makes Grendel a Beowulf-hound.)

Now add Meg’s “god dog” Piper the Scottie, Ida the yellow Lab, Max the French poodle, Porter the black Lab, and Finn the fantastic medley. It could be a recipe for chaos. Instead, it’s like the best buddy movie ever.

Grendel leans his massive head out the window, breezing. Moe snuggles. Porter seems pensive, as if composing a bestselling bark-all. Max, Ida, and Piper look out the windows. Finn reclines but casts a supervisory look over the pack.

Several dogs gaze out the windows of the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

The dogs are poised for that first sight of green fields.
© Joyce McGreevy

Go, Dog, Go!

The dogs somehow contain themselves as Meg parks. Once out the door, they run merrily down the path, splitting off occasionally to run in broad, looping arcs.

Meg Vogt and dogs enjoy a run at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Best dog run ever!
© Joyce McGreevy

There is no happiness like that of dogs roaming free.

“Ida Idaho” spots a puddle and knows just what to do.

Dogs enjoy a puddle at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Dive in!
© Joyce McGreevy

Dogs frolic at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Max and Grendel show off for the pup-arazzi.
© Joyce McGreevy

Porter, the quiet one, turns daring explorer, scouting the perimeter.  Piper and Moe hold court with adoring fans.

Finn wades into the water. There is no branch so big, no stick tossed so far, that he cannot retrieve it.

A dog carrying a branch frolics at a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon, thanks to creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dog bus. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Finn branches out.
© Joyce McGreevy

The Leader of the Pack

When it’s time to go, how do you gather a pack of dogs from 1400 acres? The secret is to be Meg Vogt. At her call, all seven come running. Together, they lope along as one big family and board the bus.

Creative thinker Meg Vogt and her dogs stroll through a leash-free dog park in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Anyone who thinks the dog bus is a trendy business is barking up the wrong tree.
The only high end in this labor of love is Grendel’s.
© Joyce McGreevy

To be tuckered out after a day of fun is the best kind of tired in the world. While the dogs rest, Meg shares her story.

Incredible Journey

“I was that white kid on the Rez,” she says.  “It was a beautiful experience, growing up in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin.”

Most nights, Meg would take her bedding out to the screened-in porch. There she’d sleep with her dog Carly, whom her mom had rescued as a puppy.

“It was sweet waking up to the sound of an Evinrude motor on the lake. I’d get in the canoe with Carly in front. Then I’d take off across the lake, go hiking in the National Forest. That was my childhood.”

Lassie (and Buddies), Come Home

One by one, the dogs are returned home. I feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, sad to bid farewell to my new friends.

Neighbors and dog visit with creative thinker Meg Vogt on a porch in Sullivan Gulch, Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Max loves Meg’s dog bus so much, he watches from a balcony for its arrival.
© Joyce McGreevy

It’s the community, says Meg, who helps keep her bus running. When the dog bus needed a new transmission, folks pitched in. “Sullivan’s Gulch is a good community that way. We all take care of each other.”

Meg Vogt and Štĕpán Šimek are creative thinkers and Sullivan Gulch neighbors in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Meg chats with Sullivan’s Gulch neighbor Štĕpán Šimek . . .  
© Joyce McGreevy

A passerby, Monique, chats with Meg Vogt, whose creative thinking led to the dog bus in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

. . . and a delighted passerby named Monique. 
© Joyce McGreevy

Dog Tales and Winding Trails

Now Meg hopes to fund a multi-purpose space for dogs and humans called Rawhide Ranch. So she’s writing books. There’s no shortage of material:

Her richly lived life has doglegged around the world. (Although we’ve only just met, Meg and I discover that our paths had crossed years earlier. We’d both been volunteer radio hosts at KAZU in Pacific Grove, California.)

There’s true love conquering all as Meg’s wife faced down metastatic colon cancer. Deb played soccer between rounds of chemo and went from having a 6% chance of survival to becoming a world-class race walker.

A little dog named Moe rides the dog bus, a product of Meg Vogt’s creative thinking in Portland, Oregon. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

When Moe lost a twin, the pack cheered him up.
© Joyce McGreevy

Then there are Meg’s “myku,” her version of haiku. Doggerel? Hardly! But the dogs clearly are muses:

        Shut down your keyboard.

        Come! Take in the morning light.

        Can you smell the rain?

Creative thinking at its off-leash best.

 

 

That night, I make a wish on the Dog Star: May Meg’s dog tales and other writing find a loving home. And may the dog bus and the dog pack always roam free.

A license plate from the dog bus in Portland, Oregon reflects Meg Vogt’s creative thinking. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Long may their tails wag!
© Joyce McGreevy

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Clever Ideas/Making a Difference/Nature Discovery/USA

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