I was walking this morning as the sun came up, with a book in my ear and a nice cool breeze on my face this late June day. It does not matter how great the book (and this one happens to be great great three chapters in), I inevitably have to pull my phone out of my pocket and hit the rewind button 30 seconds back because my mind is easily distracted.

A fellow walker/jogger/biker goes by and I must consciously greet them or comment on their dog.

Rats. What did he just say? Rewind.

A stray sprinkler head makes me step out into the street so my shoes don’t get wet.

The teacher did what at the beginning of class? Grrrr. Missed it. Rewind.

The morning newspaper is tossed too short and I immediately begin to think about how easy it is to define the age of the occupants of that home – paper delivery is almost a thing of the past, and only those who know what rotary dial phones and party lines are still subscribe to actual newspaper delivery service.

Wait. Who is Henry? How did I not catch who Henry was? Back, back, back, back, back.

Something the author mentions suddenly makes me irritated at the people who post on social media with messages to their 3-year-olds who are having a birthday like they actually log on to Facebook and will see the message or post a message to their long lost fill-in-the-blank pet about how much they are missed – when everyone knows that obviously they are NOT posting to the child or the pet. They just want everyone to see pictures and acknowledge the cuteness or the sadness. It is like duck lips Houlihan “look at me” pictures via way of children and pets.

Oh yeah, the book. Rewind, again.

Some days are more distracting than others. Sometimes I am distracted by the incredible cloud formations that catch the peachy pinks of sunrise. Other times, it is the neighborhood fox that is running across a yard. Unfortunately, sometimes it is a spider web that I walk into because I am engrossed in such a great book. If anyone out here sees me in spider web crisis mode, they will have to hit the rewind 30 seconds, too. Nothing like reality to get you to focus.

I am grateful tonight for anticipation of walking after I take this midterm so I can rewind and catch up on what I missed this morning in chapter 3 when I saw my husband sitting on the front porch as I turned the corner.

I am grateful for people who actually read newspapers in this house so I can wash my windows with materials that do not leave streaks.

I am not so grateful for spider webs in my face or June bugs freaking me out.

But if I time it right, I will finish this midterm just in time to see the sun set as another distraction, so I can begin chapter 3 all over again in the morning. For that, I am grateful.