Theron Humphrey - Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns

Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567

Table of Contents

Guide

THERON HUMPHREY

A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns

ABRAMS IMAGE, NEW YORK

g

Home grown

/ Atlanta, GA

This is one of those serendipitous moments you couldnt recreate if you tried for a year. Everything just

fell right into place. Ive eaten at this diner more than a few times and the owners are as kind as they

come. I asked if I could shoot Maddie being poured a cup of coffee for a photo idea I had. As my buddy

was pouring the coffee, Maddie just started to yawn on her own. I remember thinking, Oh my gosh,

this is amazing, this is amazing when I was shooting. For sure one of the most magical images Ive

taken. Other interesting little details: Even though I shot this on an iPhone 4, this image was published

in

National Geographic

, and it has circled the Internet more than once.

I first met Maddie back in 2010. I remember walking down a long hall of

adoptable dogs at an animal shelter outside Atlanta, Georgia, looking for

her kennel number, which they give ya at the front desk. I put her on a

borrowed leash and took her toward the playroom so I could get a better

sense of how our personalities would fit. I let her off the leash and she

trotted around the entire perimeter of the room a few times. She sniffed

all the corners, jumped up and looked out the windows, and filled her

lungs with the air coming in from the crack under the door. I must have

sat on the floor for ten minutes hoping this dog I just met would come

say hi, maybe even sit on my lap. But she never did. If Im being real

honest, I was a bit bummed about it. She was a beautiful dog with neat

spots and I wanted her to like me. After realizing she wasnt going to pay

me any mind, I put her back on the leash to take her back to her kennel.

On that walk back something really simple but profound happened. She

pressed the weight of her body against my legs. It was like the feeling you

Introduction

get when you hold the hand of someone you love a whole bunch. Maddie

won my heart on that walk. There was no way I could put her back in that

kennel, so I turned around and took her to the front desk. They asked for

forty dollars and for me to treat her right, and then said I could take her

with me. Looking back now, its fun to see how tiny subtle details in life

change everything.

Maddie and I spent the better part of four years on the road

wandering around, shooting photo projects. By now we must have traveled

the lower forty-eight states at least three times, weaving in and out of

small towns and long stretches of interstate miles. At the time I didnt

even realize I was hunting anything, I thought I was just out there to see

all those sunsets and nooks I never knew existed. But after finally hanging

my hat and being embraced by such a wonderful community of vulnerable

folks in Nashville, Tennessee, it became so clear I was using travel to

numb feelings.

Good things often get used in unhealthy ways. Travel is a gift, but

for way too long I was using it to cope. I was running from the childhood

trauma of physical abuse. Thats a pretty human response to things in

our past that we havent unpacked and healed from. We try to distract

ourselves with things in the world instead of discovering tools to get

better. For me, those tools were diving head first into therapy and doing

some hard work. It was also having a dog by my side for years. A dog that

was constant in her love. She was steady and its just what I needed. This

book is a weaving story of how Maddie taught me to live wholeheartedly.

At first, lounging might seem like a funny approach, but Im not talking

about being lazy or simply lying around. Maddie is the sort of dog who

wants to run five miles every day, to sniff every smell, to fully engage with

the world. And then after living fully, she can take pause and be present;

take it slow and be content exactly where she is.

When I look through the photos in this book I see love songs to

a wonderful dog who has been so devoted to me. Maddie is always up for

an adventure, but she also reminds me to take it slow, to find comfort in

strange places, to not be in such a hurry to see the next place. Just to

lounge on something with good people. She doesnt care where we go, she

just wants to go with me. She doesnt care what I drive. Shes not worried

about who I know or how well I did last year. The only thing Maddie wants

is for me to lay with her in the grass and have no better place to be. To

be right there, fully with her. Thats why dogs are so special. What they

demand from us is so simple: just our presence.

Theron Humphrey

Brooklyn, NY

d

Self-portrait

/ Nashville, TN

g

d

Dripping Springs, TX

Billings, MT

g

Next page

1234567

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns»

Look at similar books to Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Jessica Sorensen

The Forgotten Girl

Gemma Halliday

Fearless in High Heels

Gemma Halliday

Alibi In High Heels

Gemma Halliday

Undercover In High Heels

Jill Shalvis

Superb And Sexy

Becky Wallace

Far From Normal

Ziegler

The Maddie Diaries: A Memoir

Humphrey

Maddie lounging on things: a complex experiment involving canine sleep patterns

Theron Humphrey

Maddie on Things: A Super Serious Project About Dogs and Physics

Sherryl Woods

The Delacourt Scandal

Gemma Halliday

Mayhem in High Heels (Maddie Springer 05)

Gemma Halliday

Alibi in High Heels (Maddie Springer 04)

Discussion, reviews of the book Maddie Lounging on Things: A Complex Experiment Involving Canine Sleep Patterns and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.