My Recent Engagement – LivingMini®

Erin engaged on a horse

April 24, 2010 – West Marin

No, I’m not engaged to be married. (I just got married in Morocco for Christ’s sake!).

But I’m getting engaged on a personal level; mano-on-mano so to speak. 

If you subscribe to my Twitter feed, you know that on January 1, 2010, I made a New Year’s resolution: To become more engaged in my everyday life.

Here’s an update on how that’s going.
(In brief: not bad, could be better.)

When I talk about engagement, I really mean:

• • Slowing down to live in the present a bit more
• • Making an effort to connect with real live people
• • Shedding my skin of impatience and self-importance

I’m trying to become engaged by talking with supermarket cashiers, valet parkers, people stuck in the elevator with me. It’s a small start, I know. But at least it’s a start.

Here’s my local coffee joint. Note: It’s a drive thru! I don’t even go inside.

For instance, I went to a business lunch at this restaurant in Sausalito, overlooking San Francisco bay. As I pulled up I noticed that the valet parker had a small dog with him. I was trying to remember to ask him about the dog when I came back out, but I forgot.

It was only mid-January at the time, with my resolution still fresh in my mind, so I drove around the block to return and ask him his dog’s name. It was a little pug named “Pig.”

Well, that cracked me up. It was so unexpected. Here was this cute little dog with this horrible pig name.

Now, it was clear to me the benefit of engaging with people. Just when you think you know it all, you get to experience the unexpected (one of my favorite things of all time!).

Here’s the hut where Pig lives (Pig was off that day)

And you might even get a good chuckle out of it.

See, I need to remind myself that it’s a good thing to engage, because I tend to live:

• • Locked away in the mini house
• • In my head (BTW, I’m hilarious in my head. I stepped outside my head once to tell my friend Brigitte that I’m so funny, I’m practically stand-up material. She was like: “Ah, No, you’re not.” Hmmmm, better to stay in the head…)

Uh, oh.  A waiter just stopped by to ask me what was so funny because he noticed I was smiling to myself (I’m hilarious!) as I was writing this.  I stopped smiling and sent him away. I’m too busy writing an article about how I’m becoming a more engaged, friendlier person.

Opps, I guess I just fell off the wagon…Well, that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for.

Viva la “Pig”!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 and is filed under Heart.