the way a dog knows

i have been really skeptical and actually frightened by those people who claim to know things about you - just by sensing it.
the people who read your palm, smell your fear, see your grief, and hear your regret even before you realize you are thinking of it. they get famous on t.v. by freaking us out. how do they know these things about you? is it magic? did they take a survey of the audience and they are simply elaborating & generalizing small bits of information? it is weird and a little freaky. and i am usually all weepy in fear when i witness it. it scares me in the way that ghost stories scare me. "they" - those who have the gift - are in touch with something in me, that i am not in touch with...what is that? "they" say that we all have this gift and could be aware of our own environment in the same way and they have somehow been gifted with access to that awareness.

i have come to believe in such knowing b/c it seems even my dog knows things that i cannot put into words, myself. why does my dog rouse out of sleep when i am merely thinking of going for a walk and stand up? she does not get excited when i stand up to go to the bathroom or make a cup of tea. how does my dog know when i am sad or sick and simply lies down next to me, being a quiet presence of love and enduring patience. is this the sixth sense? is it the ultimate sense? is it common sense that we disregard? do we observe and sense more than we allow ourselves to interpret?

i know that i often wear my heart on my sleeve. but, with my dog and with people who are willing to access that ultimate sense, all of our emotions are obvious to the naked eye. there is no faking anything. the rest of us must sense more than we give ourselves credit for. and we aren't willing to make our hunches truth until there is a story to prove our hunch. i can see when someone who looks exhausted, lonely, and intimidated and i really do not need their why & how & what happened to recognize their need. do i respond to all the people i pass in a day who look so tired and depressed, uncomfortable and confused? no. so what does this super awareness provide? why be so aware of the world if we dont act on it? i dont have much conclusion. i suspect that if we fessed up to all that we can sense about each other, we might fess up to how lonely we are too. we might fess about how much we love each other. if we understood what bad liars we are when we try to cover up how we actually feel, and how little purpose our lying serves --- well, that sounds like crazy talk. actually telling others you love them. being honest about our hurt. huh. imagine that. that would be crazy.