Day one with a new guide dog is a milkweed moment: you’re swelling as if you might burst. In turn everything is softer and the world is open. My first solo walk with Corky was a festival of sorts–the trainer said goodbye at LaGuardia airport and Cork and I were suddenly on our own and we walked around the American Airlines gates like two celebrities, a freshly washed yellow Labrador with a huge head and big smile, and a mostly washed man with a look on his face that said, “I think I ate the canary.” Day one with a guide dog. Hour one. We walked past a hotdog stand; up a flight of stairs; down an adjacent corridor; flights leaving for Las Vegas; we thought we could go there too if we wanted to. But we didn’t want to. We were happy in the rainbow of the world.
Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University
