Living the Slow Life

You want to talk about being connected to the universe?  Like having those days where the world seems to hum at a higher frequency around you, calling you to make connections that would otherwise go inexperienced?  Today was one of those days. 

First, some random man in a very old Park Ranger uniform saw my car pull in to the Safeway parking lot and waited for me to step out, like he knew I needed some friendly human contact.   Searching for a job has been quite a stresser.

He immediately asked me what kind of dog Quena was as she watched us from the backseat.  He has a dog nearly identical and it can play dead too!  The friendly stranger made all the difference and made me remember that this was just one day in thousands, and I am just one life in katrillions on this earth, so I better stop sweating the small stuff.

And then there was the random field of goats.  Yes I tell you! Goats.  Hundreds of them, just randomly grazing away in what I thought was a local park.  Colorado Springs, I still have yet to put my finger on you, but thanks for making me giggle out loud.

And then the best part of my day:  Koda.  Quena and I had just entered the dog park, and as she was flitting around from pole to bush to rock sniffing and peeing over whomever’s pee had been there first, I scanned the community board.  There were “Pick up after your dog” signs, “All postings must be approved by blah and blah and so and so community board police”, and of course missing dogs.  I don’t usually read into them much (because it draws me into thinking about if Quena ever went missing, and for the sake of tears I don’t like to go there), but for some reason there was a picture of a stunningly cute young German Shepard mix that caught my eye.  Koda had been missing since September.  I thought to myself “God, that sucks.  I hope they’ve found her… and who would name their female dog Koda?”  Then I turned and started walking along the path with Quena zigzagging from one side of the trail to the other behind me.

Within minutes I hear a woman yell out “Koda!” and then on either side of me two German Shepards went bounding by followed by a woman speed walking.  Wait a tick!  As she passed I couldn’t help but stop her.  “Ma’am.  Ma’am!  I’m sorry, excuse me, but did you just call that dog Koda?”  She smiled at me and said “Yes, she was the missing dog on that board.  I just took that posting down.” 

“That’s amazing!” I told her.  “Congratulations on finding her!  How exciting!”  The woman agreed and explained to me that when Koda had been missing for over three weeks, she, her husband and two sons just couldn’t imagine life without a dog so they adopted Kiri, the other Shepard that was with her.  And then a week ago someone called and said they had Koda.  So now they had two and happily so.  What a great family for taking on two large dogs, the second of which they adopted was surprisingly graying.  Most people don’t adopt older dogs and my heart was grateful to the woman in that moment for taking Kiri.  We exchanged some more pleasantries before I let her get on with her speed walking. 

I felt totally and completely elated for the woman and the rest of her family.  And to think I wouldn’t experience that high had I not done something unusual and inspected the ‘lost dog’ section or something slightly rude, like yelling “Ma’am!” at a woman speed walking passed.  But more importantly, none of these experiences would’ve happened if I had been working a 7am-5:30pm shift, missing these hours of the day and these experiences, or if I had come upon them, quite possibly being too exhausted and fixated on getting home to enjoy them.  There is goodwill and beauty in life to be found if we look for it.  It’s just a matter of taking the time.  I’m learning that life is much richer, more fulfilling, and vibrant when the pace is slow.