Archives: June 2009

Dogs and children already know this, but it took me awhile to recognize these two main kinds of trips: some are for getting where you’re going, and some are for sniffing. Have you ever seen a dog who wants to sniff under every leaf, but the walker wants to reach a destination and tugs along? Conversely, think of those owners who stop to chat, but the dog tugs along, ready for a run… Like pets, I think that people (of all ages) need to sniff from time to time. Sometimes it takes a walk with Riana to be reminded of sniffing walks, for she is a master of such walks.

Here she is: ready to go for a walk.  At first glance, I do not yet know if we will be checking out every flower, examining sidewalk cracks, and looking for ants…or if we will be racing to corners and racing to our destination.  It turned out to be a sniffing walk.  I was okay with this for awhile– joining in tracing the bark lines on trees, speculating about the places where moths go… and then I started to get antsy… I wanted to get somewhere, wanted to get moving, didn’t want to spend an hour to make it down the block.  I started to recall those Family Circus cartoons where the boy wanders around in circles while the parents wonder what’s taking so long… But then as I began to breath, I stopped thinking about the destination, stopped calculating how long it would take to get anywhere, stopped wondering if we were going to make it to the park.  I realize that not every walk can be a sniffing walk, but in this case, we were trying to walk to the park.  As I noticed Riana, and saw her for what she wanted, I realized that being in this moment was far more important than the end product of the park.  So we sniffed, we wandered, and being able to do so became the end goal.