Lessons from my dog – Part 1

It is said that curiosity killed the cat, but as I walk my dog each day it is his curiosity that guides us as we go. Most days we actually take the identical route, the self-same piece of road, yet each time is different depending on what catches his eye or more precisely his nose. During our walk (referred to as W.A.L.K. if he is in earshot) I hold the lead but I am led by him. He dictates our pace, chooses where we stop and when we start moving again. The consequent stop start nature of our journey has been hard on my shock absorberless knees but it is worth it to share vicariously in his curious crusade.

It is a deliberate decision to approach something with curiosity. To see, hear, feel, touch or taste something curiously allows you to experience it as if gifted with it for the very first time. To explore curiously requires a pause and then time to investigate further. All judgement has to be suspended as one tentatively tests (or tastes) what is before them. Curiosity breeds creativity. Approaching something new or from a different perspective makes us question and can inspire us to learn.  Being inquisitive does not allow space for fear or anger or any of the usual culprits that hold us back or prevent us from moving forward.

Teddy goes forward every day, greeting everyone he meets with a wild wag of his tail and I go along for a wondrous walk as I am reminded to be curious.

According to behavioural economists, we are at our most curious when there is a gap between what we know and what we want to know. This is a gap we must always have as it gives us the space of possibility. Psychological theorists add that curiosity reflects our intrinsic motivation “to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise one’s capacities, to explore, and to learn.”

Curiosity is what makes a grown man venture to a foreign country to learn to kitesurf, a young adult leave home and a middle aged woman release her words into the world.

P.S.  I lived with my family for most of my childhood in an apartment on the 3^rd floor of a 6 story block. My brother had a classmate who lived on the 6^th floor with a cat as a pet. The kitty made the newspaper on one of 2 or 3 occasions when his curiosity about a bird propelled him over the balcony. His survival was miraculous but another strike for those decrying curiosity for felines or perhaps evidence for the group who claim they have 9 lives.