Noticing What I Notice

This morning, while I was taking my Awareness Walk with Love, I kept noticing how I notice Love. Quite often I am able to watch her "in the moment" and simply notice what she's doing - simply observing the way she walks, what she stops to sniff, when and where she yanks her leash to get to where she wants to go when she wants to go there...yada, yada....

But this morning, I was distinctly (is that the right word: "distinctly?") aware of how I notice what she does (and when she does it) - and how I often interpret it. An example: At the end of the alleyway closest to McKellips (my street address), is the corner house (at the cross stree), with its backyard up against the alley. Love and the dog who lives in that yard cannot help but have a snarl fest - bordering on a ballistic barking bonanza - every single time we pass by. Every single time...unless I pull Love away from the alley wall as quickly as possible (and somehow, every morning, I forget the other dog is in that yard...or I think that she must be in the house at such an early hour - but, of course, the dog is always in the yard).

So when we pass by this wall to the other dog's backyard, Love just goes all out: she tries to get her snout in one of the fence slats, she barks and snarls and the hair on her back stands on end. I hold tight to her leash, trying with much might to pull her clear of the wall. I don't know what to make of this. Does she really revile this dog - a dog she has never seen? Is her "frenzy" a territorial thing (even though it's really not her territory)? Is the dog a Teabagger (Love's absolutely a liberal, I'm certain)? And this is how it goes every day.

As we wind up our walk, I am pretty sure that Love can sense our jaunt is coming to a close. The reason I believe this is because she will stop to sniff something and she will inspect it like a woman inspecting a pair of her husband's trousers - so sure she is that he has been unfaithful. Love will inspect every nook, every cranny of the trousers (or whatever it is - a bush, a patch of grass, a section of sidewalk) - not because she really wants to inhale its scent, but because she wants to prolong the walk. She knows I must wait - especially in the mornings. She knows it is my discipline - my ritual - to keep my focus on her, to use her as my awareness sherpa. And because she knows this, she dawdles and lags around any given thing, because she CAN! (That was the interpretation part).

It's interesting to me how I can create these ideas about why she does what she does. How quickly my head can whip up ideas that are probably non-existent (and especially, because I think they, so often, have to do with me). So I noticed that I notice things much of the time from my perspective - and a not very objective one at that.

However, I definitely also notice the beauty and the sweetness and the sense of being present and the constant sense of being alive and in tune the way Love is in the world, on her walks: her dainty little feet...the way they touch the ground in a poised trot of sorts; the way she investigates a flower or when her ears lift up and out just a bit whenever a specific sound catches her attention. She is always in the moment - always present for whatever presents itself. She is a gift. She is my teacher. She helps me be aware of what is all around me, and she helps me become aware of what is going on inside me as well.

Love helps me notice, what I notice.