Wakefulness

"Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps as if he was already dead..."

I have probably walked our dogs over a thousand times over the past several years. I was fully aware of the act of walking our dogs probably several dozen of those times. I was always thinking about the next thing and the next thing and the next thing or distracting myself with music. I was a zombie being walked by dogs, going through the motions of walking the dogs.

The dogs on the other hand could probably tell you what happened on every single one of those walks; where they went, the content of their daily "pee-mail" correspondence, who they met, places that were good to poop in, squirrel suicide zones and so forth. Dogs don't have filters. They're always on. You may think they are not paying attention to you, but really they are sometimes so absorbed in the moment, that they just let everything else wait. It's like having a flashlight on in the dark. You can illuminate only a small area at one time, but you are aware of everything around you.

I think one of the best things we can do for ourselves and those around us is to become as interested in living every moment of our lives as a dog is.