My dogs never see their world the same way twice.
I have a lot to learn from them.
My husband Harold and I take our dogs for two to three walks a day on the same stretch of road, about two miles round trip. Yes, we vary it with visits to the parks when we can, but for the most part they are in the same territory a few times every day, 365 days a year.
I’ve watched them. Every day they act like they’ve never seen the landscape before. Never smelled the same smells.
They are eager and excited because it is a new world to them today. They don’t seem to think “here we are again, in the same place, how boring.”
I work in my home, so my universe is much smaller than it is for most people. I often go for a few days without going out of my immediate neighborhood.
Many of us orbit around the same things day after day, cycling through home, work, and community, except for the times that we go on vacation or travel farther afield.
Except that, as my dogs know, they aren’t the same things. People are changing, weather is changing, nature is changing, light is changing. An infinite number of variables are dancing in an infinite number of combinations, which yields a different miracle in every moment.
The trick is to be present for the miracles.
When I’m really present, focused completely on what is right here, right now, I know that my world is never the same. There is always something different in it, in every moment. No matter how many times I have been “here,” I’ve never been here right now.
How do I cultivate that kind of presence? It helps me to deepen attention to my senses.
When I’m out on a dog walk, I tune into my environment with all of my senses, rather than tuning out, listening to a podcast, or going over something in my mind. What am I seeing today? What do I feel on my skin, or under my feet? What are the subtle things that I am hearing? What is catching my attention?
It is so simple to do this. When I do it, I do pick up on different things every day.
It is also pretty amazing how easily I can zone out and miss the whole walk, if something else is on my mind. So, it does take a conscious commitment to be present.
What it yields, though, is a whole different walk than the day before. My world becomes fascinating again.
What are you seeing in your world today?
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