Navigator in Lightroom 6 EMPTY

Ok.

This is bizarre .

I created a new catalog

I am in the library module and opened the navigator panel. Normally i see my Mac OS file structure and point to the photo directory and hit import.

but my navigator panel shows NOTHING.

my  OS finder shows the directory and all of the files....

I closed and re-opened Lightroom and the same thing happened.

i did NOT update my OS, since i have an old mac (6 years) and i can't upgrade past High Sierra.

as i am writing this i thought of re-booting my computer , but i doubt that it would solve the issue, but i'll try it and report back.

thanks

steve