The biker, the bear, and the barefooted babe

The other morning I was sitting against a doug fir tree at a local nature preserve, barefoot, dropped into my senses, feeling amazing.

Then, out of nowhere, I heard someone moving fast through the forest. I turned and saw her: a black bear, a fifty yards behind me.

She stopped and looked around. I stood up, made noise so she would see me, and we checked each other out. Neither of us felt threatened, so we just stared. And I, of course, swooned. :)

Then we both heard another noise. A biker appeared, dragging his bike up a trail he wasn’t supposed to be on, huffing and puffing. Something about him felt a little off, so the bear and I both had our eyes on him, occasionally glancing at each other like, “You good? Yeah, I’m good.”

Eventually, the bear wandered off. The biker rested, then finally rode past me, less than 50 feet away.

He never saw me.
He never saw the bear.
He had no idea he was being watched by a big, beautiful black bear and a barefooted babe. (That’s me, ha!)

And it struck me how much he missed.

What I’ve concluded: Where we place our attention is everything. Attention is one of our human superpowers—our ability to choose where we put it.

When we place it on the living, breathing world around us, not only do we wake up parts of our brain and nervous system that modern life puts to sleep, but we get to experience the magic of the wild nature around us and the wonder of being alive.

When we don’t… we miss it. Just like that biker.