There are so many things we lose as we age. Our hair turns grey, wrinkles appear, joints don’t move as well as they did and we seem to just be all around slower. I am pretty much ok with all that. I call it my successes. The only thing that I want to be careful not to lose is my awe. I have to practice it every day. Sometimes a vigorous workout is required. I would suggest 20 to 30 minutes a day, at least three times a week.
I remember when we rented a little house at the bottom of Brady Mountain. The location was just at the end of a few downhill hairpin type turns. This was a major route for tractor trailers to travel from the north to Chattanooga. As the trucks would make their way down the mountain, you could hear the screeching of wheels or the roughness of the engine as they downshifted to maneuver the road. Each time a tractor trailer would make its way down the winding road, the engines would scream and my then 3 year old son would stop everything he was doing and run to the middle of the driveway to be in awe of this huge mechanical giant on wheels. He did this every time. For hours regularly I would watch him race to get just one fleeting glance. He never tired of it. Each time he saw these trucks was like the first time he ever saw one. That is awe. He marveled at the size, the speed, the colors, the sounds they made.
Every morning I wake up early just to run outside to watch the sun rise. I marvel at the color, the cloud formation, the reflection, the speed in all its gracefulness. When I am lucky enough to be still at sunset, I wait and be in awe of that too. The sky is something that has always amazed me. Its where quiet comes from.
As I grow older, my body may fail me, my youth will leave me, but I hope I never lose the awe of looking up. My Challenge, find something today that amazes you.
