Experiment in Daily Noticing

I tend to be a fairly serious person. I spent the five years after college working for a human rights organization striving to end oppression, slavery, and trafficking in the world. I decided to go back to school for a Social Work/Public Health degree so I could be well equipped to end sex trafficking. A lot of my brain power is used up as my thoughts fixate on the experiences of victims of trafficking, how in the heck I'm going to have a functional family and still have the career I want (aka - saving the world,) and whether I'm making the right decisions in my life. These are good thoughts, but, as can be imagined, these thoughts can be overwhelming at times and can have serious consequences in my marriage, friendships, and mental health. But, when I try to imagine my time, efforts, and life spent on anything less serious than ending trafficking or slavery and saving the world, I tend to feel like I'll be wasting my time here on earth. Those feelings, of course, make me feel awesome - and exhausted.

Over the past year I've noticed this tugging within me to pay attention to the more simple, peacful, and joyful everyday things that happen in my life. Instead of rushing past those things in order to pay attention to the more meaningful, "serious" things that are sucking the life out of me, I should linger on the little things that give meaning to life. I want my eyes to be open to the present, rather than focused on the horizon I may not ever get to. I want to be more grateful. Not only for the big things in life, but for the little gifts I receive every day that I tend to trample with my thoughts' mental stampede for worth.

So, this blog is an experiment in daily noticing. I want to be more disciplined in seeing the simple things in life. Sometimes huge things can be simple, and sometimes simple things can be huge. I want to get to the serious business of finding joy in this life.

With that in mind, my first post is about the newest addition to the Noble family - Tucker. He's 30 pounds of mostly-Beagle-mutt that we adopted last October. His presence in our home these past ten months has been one of the things pulling me toward simplicity. He is complete and pure simplicity. When we say, "Are you ready to eat?" he immediately jolts into unadulterated puppy joy and longing for the entire one cup of processed puppy chow that he gets each morning and night. Then, he sits and waits patiently until we say "OK," and then digs into his feast. When one of us comes in the door he sprints with his tail wagging and ears low to be the first to greet us. He usually gets a pet on the head before I get a kiss from Seth (not that I'm jealous or anything...) We've started to interpret his various head and ear positions to better understand what he's thinking. We haven't quite figured him out yet. All we really know is that he's a happy, content dog, lacking in nothing.

I want to be more like Tucker. Happy, content, simple, and fully aware that I am lacking in nothing.