D. H. Lawrence said, and I can’t quote him exactly right now since I am not near my files, “Do what is right under your nose to do. That is the hardest thing, which is why so few people can do it.” I think of this notion often. Often!

There are so many “out there’s” to do – the mail, internet, future projections, even meditation, spiritual practices – but when there is a four-year-old neighbor running to me with her arms open wide screaming “Tayria!!!!” when I go to the mailbox she is right under my nose. She takes my hand to introduce me to today’s magic and wonders. “Let me show you quickly,” she says because she knows I am always busy and in a hurry to get back to my “out there’s”,  hesitant to yield to just staying lengthily with her, who is right under my nose.

Often it is the menial things that are right under my nose, the grass to be mowed, the dishes to be washed that I flail against because of the important “out there” other things that call to be done. The wisdom in this quote is helpful to me nearly every day, a way to guide myself through the chaos of demands coming from every which way.

It is an animal thing too, they generally follow what is right under their nose. There is mysterious but simple wisdom, and also comfort,  in this advise.