Dogs Are Not Just Pets: They Are Teachers Of Life

A Quest for Well-Being

— “Life is everywhere, and we are connected to it. In the web of life, everything has a purpose and is part of the ecology of the planet. Our dogs help me see all this. It starts with their curiosity, their need to inspect every little thing on a walk and then do it again the next day. Every being has a purpose. Follow a dog or a child, explore a little, ask one question, which leads to another, and then a whole new world appears before you. Children and dogs. On a walk, the most important thing to do is be curious. We walk for all sorts of reasons. We decompress. We count steps. We listen to music. We make lists. If we are not alone, we talk.

Yet if we follow our dog’s nose, if we spend a bit of time wondering about where that plant, that flower, that mysterious jackrabbit — their head and ears peeking out from a bush — came from, and we do it repeatedly, the biosphere emerges before us as astonishing and interconnected. We walk in a sacred space. Life connected; life dependent. Nothing stands, walks, runs, creeps, swims, slithers, sends out shoots or roots independently. Every living creature has a past, a history that takes it back to those single-cell ancestors four billion years ago.

It is the great Oneness.”

Valeria interviews Hersch Wilson — He is the author of “Dog Lessons: Learning the Important Stuff from Our Best Friends, Play To Win: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and Life, Firefighter Zen: A Field Guide to Thriving in Tough Times and Test of Faith - A Novel of Faith and Murder in the Southwest.”

Hersch Wilson has worked (as in jobs he was actually paid for) as a corn pollinator, a ferris wheel operator, a short-order cook, a ballet dancer, an outdoor educator, a soccer coach, a leadership consultant, a pilot, and a writer. The ferris wheel operating was the strangest job. Lots of physics involved. Along the way, he was also a volunteer firefighter-EMT for thirty-three years which culminated in the award-winning book, “Firefighter Zen, A Field Guide for Thriving in Tough Times.“ Most importantly he is the partner of Laurie Wilson, father of two daughters and grandfather of two. For over sixty years he’s also been a dog guardian. He has co-written three national business bestsellers with his father, Larry Wilson, including the award-winning, “Play to Win: Choosing Growth Over Fear in Work and in Life”.

Hersch attended Colorado College and quit his junior year to follow his passion, dance. He performed in Canada, Switzerland, and the United States. After that career ended, he graduated with a BA in English from the University of Minnesota.

Hersch and Laurie live in Santa Fe, New Mexico with their daughter Sully and two rescue dogs, Toby, a Great Pyrenees, and Maisie, a terrier-chihuahua mix.

His latest book is “Dog Lessons, Learning the Important Stuff from Our Best Friends.”

You can follow on Medium.com (@HerschWilson), on X (Twitter) (@Bravingfires), on Instagram (@herschwilson)and on his website, HerschWilson.com.

You can order Hersch’s books at your favorite bookstore or wherever books are sold OR you can go to our wonderful book store in Santa Fe — Collected Works — order in person or online!

To learn more about Hersch Wilson and his work, please visit: https://www.herschwilson.com/

— This podcast is a quest for well-being, a quest for a meaningful life through the exploration of fundamental truths, enlightening ideas, insights on physical, mental, and spiritual health. The inspiration is Love. The aspiration is to awaken new ways of thinking that can lead us to a new way of being, being well.