Awe

Have you ever considered... what things spark a sense of awe within you? What causes you to sink back, or to lean forward? Here's my list, in no particular order.

1. City Lights. Sitting stereotypically on a balcony looking at the city against the black night, staring down at lights from the more distant airplane window, or speeding along the freeway and seeing the headlights, tailights and street lights.... whichever way you see them, they just have a mesmerizing quality of modern beauty, and inspire awe by all the life and development they seem to represent.

2. Fire. Similar to city lights, but fire has a more natural magic. My psychology textbook says that our eyes are attracted to light and motion, and fire is both. Bonfires or fires in the fireplace on a chilly day, demand attention. You can lose yourself in their relaxing flames.

3. Distant Storms. This past summer, stranded on a mountain side late at night, we looked across to distant mountain ranges and saw lightning illuminate cloud edges and could see the zig zag strike the top of the mountain. I hate storms, but it did have a beauty that I could not deny.

4. A really good, powerful performance. The speaking ends, but the words linger.

5. Sunsets, sunrises, and rainbows.

6. Newborn Babies. Everything about them is so small...I marvel that they can move, that their bodies function. It really is remarkable.

7. The cracks in the ice out the window of an airplane over the Arctic. I can't really explain the image....everything about it is fantastic. The world seems to stretch forever, covered in ice with large seams running through it... It's a wonder.