Okay, it’s official.

I am nowhere near as sensitive to my surroundings as I’d like to think I am.

Oh, I do make a concerted effort to be ‘in the now’. You know, observing where I am and using as many of my senses as I can, rather than rushing through life and missing so much.

When I walk Oli, I really take the time to enjoy it.

I take in the verdant lushness of whichever nearby park we happen to be in; I love noticing the various shades of green and  the dappled sunlight on leaves and rough brown tree trunks.

I hear the call of the sea gulls (we’re less than a mile to Sheveningen beach and the harbor area), and also of the infamous Den Haag parrots. Not to mention the laughter and shouts of children as they swing or play games at the tiny hidden playground or in the skateboard park. Or the Dutch chatter of teens as they pass us in the bicycle lanes.

I smell the loamy soil after a good rain, and the fresh smell of woodlands.

My feet feel the differences among the hardness of the busy roadway we cross to enter the park, the springier walkways and the dirt side-paths that shoot off in other directions.

About the only sense I may not be using during these walks is my sense of taste, but you get the picture.

Oh yeah, I’m Miss Get-in-Touch-with-What’s-Going-On-Around-Her.

But I swear that I did not notice the earthquake that hit near Nederland’s eastern border with Germany last night.

Not. one. thing.

The quake was 4.5 on the Richter scale, people! And the border is barely 2 hours away by car.

I’m shaking my head in wonder. How could it be that close and that big (4.5 is nothing to scoff at) and totally escape my notice?

So there you go. Sometimes when you focus only on the big stuff, you miss the little details.

And apparently vice versa.