It’s one of those days when the sun is brilliant in a cloudless sky, and the air still has an edge of crispness to it.

Have you ever been walking on a day like that, but really, it might as well have been the dreariest, most colourless, coldest time ever, for all the notice you took of it?

I’ve recently thought about how often I go on autopilot. Reading, eating, driving, watching a movie, walking the dog—without being aware of it, my focus shifts from thinking about what I’m doing, to thinking about anything and everything. It’s as if the activity I’m doing is just a veneer to allow all sorts of thoughts to cram behind it into the rest of my mind. And usually, those thoughts are about what’s making me anxious, angry, upset or nervous.

Walking the dog, in my case a greyhound called Blondie, is a lesson I’d love to share with you on how to take ourselves off autopilot.

That dog really knows how to enjoy a stroll through a park. Faye Michelson

Embracing Life

That dog really knows how to enjoy a stroll through a park. She embraces the experience so much that it can take a very long time to walk a very short distance. For instance, there are large, strappy plants lining some of the paths. She buries her nose right into the centre of their leaves so deeply, that all you can see is the top of her head.

She sniffs for ages before moving on to the next plant and doing the same. She likes flowering plants, seeming to inhale their fragrance as she pushes the blooms around with her nose. She walks along the grass, nose to ground, stopping frequently to investigate some invisible scent of interest or to chew on some tasty pieces of greenery. When I sit on the park bench, she stands beside me, her face lifted to the sun, or she leans against me for a pat.

There’s no walking on autopilot for her. She’s fully engaged and, judging by her tail, happy. For her, there’s nothing but the moment she’s living in and the everyday joys it brings.

We often have good reasons to cope with stressful thoughts, but what a relief, a reprieve even, to leave them behind for a while.

Being present in the present can be such a gift. “This is the day that the Lord has made; let’s rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24 International Standard Version), even if only for a few minutes at a time.

Reprinted from Salvos Magazine (Australia), February 22, 2025