One Thing My Dog Has Taught Me

This is my dog.

His name is Nimo.

Nimo has taught me many things and continues to teach me new things everyday -- how to pick up poop, how to wipe pee, how to feed a dog, how to give water to a dog, how to walk a dog, how to pet a dog, how to play with a dog, how to dog a dog (wait wut?), how to try to get a dog to attack ducks at the nearby lake but not because the dog would rather sniff trees and pinecones.


Among all these, there is one thing he has taught me in particular that I hold close.

Whenever we go for a walk, Nimo never (ever) walks in a straight line -- he always veers from the course. He always sniffs everything. EVERYTHING. I think he is a botanist in disguise because I'm pretty sure he has sniffed every bush/flower/pinecone/blade of grass in our apartment complex about 1290381 times (not an exaggeration).

I think he was trying to tell me something.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our day to day lives -- caught up with Facebook, caught up with Twitter, caught up with Instagram, caught up with whatever. We are missing the little things. We are missing life. We tend to miss the bushes, flowers, and pinecones.

As simple as it sounds, Nimo has taught me to stop and look around -- to appreciate what's around me. It has made me notice things that I've never seen before even though I've walked by them countless times. It's fascinating, really.

Or maybe Nimo is just telling me to sniff everything. That works too.