Dogs, they just trot past a leaf without even noticing it - unless another dog has peed on it.
More important priorities than colour they have - as Yoda might put it.
Whereas people? This leaf caught my eye as I walked to the car. I was struck by the colours.
So she was trying to imagine what it was like for dogs - seeing the world in black and white.
Now that's a strange concept for a 10-year-old (black & white).
Dogs, I said, make up for it with great smell and hearing.
My parents had a miniature sausage dog who was more useful than her younger
counterparts even when she was old and blind.
She picked up a car driving into the gravel driveway of the farm at the gate - about a km away. And for the first time my niece asked if I was a painter. I said yes.
"Where are your paintings?" she asks.
I told her tucked away - thinking of the grand-scale polemics.
And later when we're watching TV she looks at an ink painting on the wall.
"Did you paint that?" she asks.
It was something done with ink and styrofoam cups.
"Yes," I reply, as she asks about every painting on the walls.
It hadn't even clicked in my mind to point these out to her earlier.
I barely register them any more - but it's the first thing people notice when they come in. I hope that she comes to recognise that it's not about noticing and judging difference.
I think it's more about how the whole thing comes together that counts.
Being conscious. All song comes from silence
All action from stillness...
Potential unfolds as opportunity arises.
Herein lies the seed of greatness.
Without action, only potential,
Without a core, incoherence ... It's paraphrased but this is one of the contemplations I like.
It hangs in the toilet at Yoga in Daily Life.