"Look Up and Live"

​I set out from my house for my daily walk – along a leaf strewn path lined with poplars and garden beds, around a bend in the creek, past an old barn and onto a driveway under huge cottonwood trees losing the last of their golden leaves in the fall breeze.  It was at that point that I realized I had missed all of it, lost in my own thoughts.  The words “Look up and live!” came to mind, a safety advertising campaign of the local electric company.  Their warning is to keep people aware of power lines overhead.  My message was to look up and see what was in front of me, the world I was walking through that moment.  Look up and live.  Stay present.  Appreciate that glorious warm fall day, the breeze through my hair, the crunch of leaves under my feet, turkeys slinking through the grass to avoid the dogs.