Like Reading a Good Book

This evening when I was practicing T'ai Chi in my back yard, I suddenly noticed that I wasn't noticing the sounds around me. So I started noticing. A lawn mower. A neighbor's swamp cooler whirring and rattling. Some birds having a vocal and animated squabble. Cars whizzing down the high-speed-limit street bordering the neighborhood. A dog barking. And another dog. Kids in a neighbor's yard yelling, laughing, screaming at the top of their lungs. There was so much sound, I was surprised that I hadn't noticed any of it. The kids' yelling in particular, I thought would have been a distraction. But I was so absorbed in what I was doing, I didn't notice any of it. It reminded me of reading a good book, when you can get so absorbed in the story you don't notice the TV, or stereo, or the dryer beeping, or other people around you, trying to talk to you, or even yelling at you to try to get your attention. Focus. Focus is good.