While Walking the Dog at Two A.M.
March 16, 2015
My dog Scout will be 16 years old on Sunday, and as you might
expect, she has some health issues. One of them is that she can’t always sleep
through the night without having to relieve herself. Her bed is on a chair on
my side of the room, so I’m the one who hears her jump down, and I’m the one
who slips on her leash and takes her outside. Usually, I try not to wake up all
the way so that I’ll stand a chance of going back to sleep, but this morning,
at 2 a.m., I found myself looking up at the stars while I waited for Scout. The
air felt cool and fresh, Orion’s belt twinkled in the night sky. The
neighborhood was silent, peaceful. Scout was quick, and I returned to my warm
bed and quickly fell asleep. What could have been (and often is) an annoyance
turned into a moment of delight for me.
I’ve been working on going with the flow, relaxing my death
grip on life and paying more attention to little moments of delight when
they’re presented to me: when my favorite song comes on the radio, when Prudy
jumps up on my desk for some attention, when I grab my book and steal some
reading time in the afternoon. It’s easy to find delight in things like
that—not quite so easy to find delight when woken at 2 a.m., and I admit
that I’m more likely to complain about that situation than to recount how
lovely the stars look sparkling in the velvety darkness… Just this once, though,
I was able to let go and admire the night sky. It was unexpectedly delightful.
I’m not sure I would have found it so without my recent focus on delight. Which
goes to show, I guess, that you find more of what you focus on.
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| Oh, sure, sleep NOW... |
6 comments
Sweet Scout…great post and love the new focus.
ReplyDeleteThe past Saturday morning, I had to return a magazine to the bookstore as I'd already bought a copy…hubby went with me and he found a model, an art book and a phone cover that "delighted" him. It was fun for me to share in the discoveries and his delight.
As always, your posts speak strongly to me...I can just imagine how beautiful that sky was! It's very true, I think, that the atitude & focus so often rule our actual experiences. My lemons into lemonade: During the snowstorm yesterday I was more or less housebound which helped me to focus on some very rewarding indoor work...
ReplyDeleteLaure--Other people's delight is also delight-ful! I'm glad you and Chris made the most of the excursion.
ReplyDeleteRita--I agree about attitude and focus. I'm glad you were able to focus on the indoor work when you couldn't get outdoors. I find that it's being unable to do something that makes me want to do it all the more...i.e., normally I might be perfectly happy to putter around in the house, but as soon as I "have" to wait for a repairman or something like that, suddenly I can't wait to get out of the house!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I would hate to have to get up at 2:00 am, but I vaguely remember the peace I found at that time of night when getting up to feed my son when he was a baby.
ReplyDeleteCheryl--The whole situation reminds me of when my son was a baby: sleeping lightly so I can hear when the dog gets up, etc. Fortunately, she doesn't do it that often.
ReplyDelete