She looked to be about 14, Dorothy-like with her pigtails and pink striped dress, bow dangling loosely behind her waist. She stepped out from the loaf-shaped, orange vehicle alone, oblivious to the 10 cars backed up in each lane. She walked slowly, heavily, school books clutched tight to chest, head looking down, eyes looking in.
I saw her about the same time the spaniel-sized mutt did. Bounding toward her, tail swishing, tongue lolling, feet dancing, it was obvious the girl's arrival was the highlight of the dog's entire day. At the point on the lawn where they met, the happy dog rose to hind legs and danced with the girls - which continued walking - right through the eager pup's embrace, never even slowing.
As traffic ahead began to roll, my last view of the scene was of the dejected pooch, staring quietly at her master's back, as each of her unseeing steps left him further and further behind.
Ouch.
It wasn't possible to determine the girl's problem, but whatever it was, I sure hoped it was worth the cost.
While mentally flailing for some weighty solution to her imagined woes, she had missed the infinite number of miracles swirling around her feet that very instant.
The grass she walked upon was alive, growing and duplicating by itself - a perpetual process that our best scientists are unable to mimic - let alone understand.
Each of her breaths inhaled a complex mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, neon, helium, krypton, and xenon. All miraculously provided in precise, perfectly mixed, unlimited quantities, free of charge.
She walked - even though microscopes reveal the billions of atoms that make up our legs have more empty space between them than they have mass. In fact, no two atoms even touch another, yet they somehow know to form legs, and somehow remain connected to our bodies, moving by our very thought.
And on this world of 8 billion souls, she, above all others, was the one whom that puppy had chosen to share its love.
Lost in her thoughts, she'd missed it all.
I sure hoped they were worth the cost.
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Mike is an energetic writer & entrepreneur. Learn more about Mike's offerings at www.MikeJohnson.biz