Thursday, August 19, 2010

Why We Love Dogs


Dogs are lovable and playful.
And they way they express their love to us
is through their play.

In their youth, dogs are super-flexible. We love
to watch them stretch when they wake up, and
fold their bodies in half when they lick their own
butts. A dog can scratch his ear with his hind
leg with no trouble at all.

Dogs are super-powerful. Although they lack
the ball-like rotations of our shoulders and hips,
dogs have amazing range of motion, superb
tendons, and muscles that explode like dynamite.
This allows them to do things like jump fences,
run 40 mph, grab frisbees out of the air, and
fight with other dogs.

The physicality of a dog is no more and no less
than the rest of the animal kingdom. The difference
is that we get to house, keep and interact with
these awesome creatures. Until they grow old,
dogs are a personal circus right in your living
room or your backyard. We live vicariously
through them, wishing we could move, stretch,
jump and run they way they can.

If we learn the magic practice of Fu Tai Chi,
we can be much more like them: moving
effortlessly and freely. If we practice weight
lifting and jogging, and the other forms of
hard exercise-- or if we do nothing at all--
we will get old and stiff, and break down
just the way a dog does.

In Chinese martial arts, we say,
"Like dogs, karate masters get old."
But if you practice Fu Tai Chi, you
will remain vibrant and youthful,
like a dog jumping a high fence.

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