DHARMA PORTRAIT BY MADELINE FALK, www.madelinefalk.com

He took me to my true self and to my true love, my Baba. He was my dog and my guide and in many ways, my god–my seeing eye god. Guarding me from demons and danger and always there, always always there without condition, without judgment, bringing me back to center.

He is a guru, a Master who teaches me still, to sleep when I'm tired, to eat when I'm hungry, to take a long walk in Nature every day and "to let the soft animal of my body love what it loves" as Mary Oliver writes in Wild Geese. Love and play are the morals by which he sets his compass and no moment is more or less important than the next. Every moment is the most important moment and every moment is Now. There is only Now. He tells me songs to write, stories to script, poetry to read...he is the great and holy Dharma and he gave me the eye through which I am able to see my destiny. Thank you is such a small phrase for such a giant soul but it is all I have, gratitude running through every vein, every bone, every memory of which there are millions. After 14 years together (he lived to be 171/2) I am humbled by his friendship and continue to be devoted to his whiskers, his spots, his funny titled expressions, his groans, grumbles, barks, growls, his lessons and his farts, especially his epic farts... all the quirks and truths I can't capture here, not yet anyway.

These are photos from Hawaii too, the ten days of belated honeymoon my Baba and I took together just after Dharma left his costume and traveled Home. Of course, little Louise Dharma-Moon is growing in my belly and so I'm big like a Buddha and thrilled by the miracle. James met us on the island and we shared some great adventures (celebrating the finishing of draft one of the novel he's been helping me edit for a couple years now)...here's to Dharma and the rainbow that arches across the universe connecting Time and Eternity to Now as life keeps growing on.







And one more thing, some day the kicking baby in my belly will be a brilliant woman fulfilling her own destiny and bringing peace to earth, so here's a belly shot pure and simple...I'm 30 weeks as of yesterday!