Keys. Birds. Mindfulness.

Last week I loaned my front door key to someone I know who was delivering packages to my front door. (long story) The packages were delivered and the key was returned. I put the key on a bureau.

Fast forward a few days.

Now I am leaving for a friend's house in Massachusetts. As I am dashing out the back door I notice the key, which I have yet to re-attach to my keychain. I stuff it in my pocket and head out, thinking that I would reattach it when I got to Massachusetts.

Fast forward a few days.

I remember the key. But I cannot find it. It is not in my purse, not in my pocket, not on the keyring, not in my car, not in my luggage. I check the floor in the room I undressed in. No key. I email my friend in Massachusetts asking her to look for the key, please. No luck.

A total of two weeks pass.

Then I am walking to my car, taking the back stairs, as I have every day for two weeks. There, on the pavement at the very base of the stairs, in a place so obvious one would have to be blind to miss it, is my key. I should point out that other tennants use these stairs. It seems that all of us just plain missed it. For two weeks.

How bizarre is that?

I was reading some of Thich Nat Hahn's writing on mindfulness. Could it be that I missed the key over and over because I was not being mindful? I am a birdwatcher. I know what happens when I shift focus and begin to watch for birds. Suddenly I see them where they always were, but my being mindful of them allows me to see them. Yet in the course of a busy day I am likely to not notice them. On a busy day a bird could land on my head and I would almost miss it.

How would my day change if I mindfully watched for peace or joy or love?