They both sat on the muddy grass. Well what was left of the grass. Mike looked down at his golden yellow Labrador legs which now looked like he was sporting black riding boots. “How the heck am I gonna get this crap off” he said puzzled. 

Ronnie looked regal. None of it bothered him. It wasn’t that he particularly liked mud, or the steep winding uphill trail that led to the cliff. The steely German Shepherd was there to fill his lungs with the sea air. Ronnie was at perfect peace on the cliff top looking over the stunning Firth of Forth river that runs slowly to the North Sea.

The Scottish summer breeze blew fresh through their strong coats as they looked over a blue blanket of beauty. Sailboats and seagulls filled the frame.

Only Mike could interrupt the moment so anxiously “we are so high that we are looking down on the gulls Ronnie”. Ronnie said nothing.

Mike, uncomfortable in the silence, blurted out “DOUBT IS ONLY THOUGHT”.

Ronnie turned slowly to him, raising a brow. Mike, now glad to get Ronnie’s attention continued “I know you told me before that doubt is only a thought, just an idea that we hold onto, and is rarely a realistic representation of what really is”.

Ronnie broke his gaze from a seal bobbing his head out of the water below. “Doubt is a thought, yes”.

“Then why do we believe the doubt, why is it so strong if it’s only a thought that we created?? I don’t understand” said Mike who now appeared angry, but he wasn’t sure with who.

Ronnie looked once more at the water before turning fully to Mike and said “you aren’t asking the right question”

Mike sighed “well what is the RIGHT question?”

Ronnie said “what we need to ask ourselves is… why do we have a need to understand the why?”

“It’s the need to figure out why we have doubt and what it means that confuses and exhausts us. We desperately hold onto it, clinging as if we can control it! Trying to control the reasons why and its meaning is a waste of your time, like trying to smell your own nose”.

“That last line sounded suspiciously like Alan Watts” Mike thought to himself. He now stared back at Ronnie without moving the wind swept hair covering one of his eyes, and said “so we try to control why we have doubt and what it means…why?”

Ronnie said passionately “fear… Fear that we aren’t sure what’s next, that we will be okay, that the doubts may be real, that we don’t contol what’s next”

“We must let go of that control. You see what we need to understand is that we don’t HAVE to understand. Not everything needs to be explained, especially thoughts that we create in times of fear, anxiety, sadness, jealousy, pain, comparison, etc”

Mike said without thought “Let it go, let it all go”

“The way we perceive the world shapes the reality we experience Mike” Ronnie said as he turned towards the winding hill and trotted off.

Mike said to himself “I’m gonna need a journal for these talks… smh”