dog on the balcony

yesterday morning I sat in my office working on my computer, reading blogs and online newspapers, checking my email, also playing solitaire and looking at You Tube videos. My office is on the second floor of our house and there's a set of french doors that open on to a balcony over-looking the front yard of our house. The whole time I was at my desk my dog sat outside on the balcony, flopped on a pillow, enjoying the southern california weather. Instead of sleeping she was quite alert. Her head was up, looking around, her ears twitched at different sounds from neighbors and the street. And especially she kept her nose up and I could see her catching smells that I couldn't sense.

It occurred to me that she and I were doing the same thing, I with my computer, her with her physical senses. To keep me entertained and informed it took advnaced technology and an internet connection that gave me access to the entire world. She needed only her body and a balcony opening on to her own front yard.

Understanding and appreciating the greater consciousness available to me and the gifts the capacity for complex thought give to me, I also looked with jealousy at how simple and self-contained my dog's world could be. It made my long for a monastic kind of life. How nice to be content with a world the size of a front yard and a single pillow in the sun.