Missing

What ELSE have I been missing?


Sniff, Sniff
Rebecca, are you in there?



There is a young man about my age who I see walking his little dog every morning before work. At about 7:10, they round the bend of the street that I can see out my kitchen window as I make tea, and stop at the edge of my neighbor's flower garden. There is always something good to sniff there, since this is also a favorite hang out for one of our neighborhood cats. The young man is usually dressed in khakis and wearing sunglasses. Often I believe his dog is really walking him, since he pays more attention to his cell phone and his text messages than he does to where they are going. Little doggie leads the way, stopping and starting and sniffing and shivering in the cool morning breezes.

They appear again in the evening, at around 6:00. This time they round the corner by the mailboxes, owner dressed in workout gear and headphones, little dog galloping along to keep stride.

This happens every day, morning and evening. I have been living here for just over three years, and I never noticed any of this until very recently.

It occurs to me that often we get so wrapped up in who we think we are or need to be, and in what we're doing, and in what others think we're about or should be about, that we stop looking around and noticing the world outside. It is as though I have been missing from my own life for quite some time now.

It does beg the question... what ELSE have I been missing? Now that I am NOT so wrapped up in my own self-importance, now that I have been knocked flat on my back on the floor with nowhere to look but up, what else is there to see from this vantage point?

I have to admit, I feel a little bit sorry for those who are still so caught up that they won't notice the little dog kicking up dirt in the neighbor's flowerbeds, while on the other end of the leash, his master yawns and sleepily checks his voicemail.