Absolute Wonder

Absolute Wonder--

Tonight I sat outside enjoying the evening sights and sounds.  Diamonds twinkled down on the earth.  A slight breeze played in the trees.  Fireflies danced in the air sometimes lighting on leaves.  Such a wonderful ending to a very busy day.

During our waking hours we hurry around from project to project getting things done. We stay busy.  Kids to take places.  Groceries to be purchased and put away.  Laundry to be done.  Careers to attend to.  Emails to send.  Phone calls to make.  Bills to pay.  It seems there is never enough time to get everything checked off that list.  Things tend to spill over into the next day.  And the list continues to grow.

Then night arrives.  Families settle into new routines once school begins.  Schedules are important.  They keep everyone on task.  Eventually, when all the school work, dinner and such are finished, there is a little time to unwind.  To visit together.  To watch a little tv.  So when a night to visit the outdoors is available, what a gift it is.

My guess is most people never give much thought to spending a little time outdoors at night.  I completely understand that.  People are exhausted from all the demands of the day.  What is most desired is to crash in that bed that has been waiting.  Yes, I get that.  Sleep and rest are not luxuries.  They are necessities.  However, I do wonder if life wouldn't be a little easier if we took the time to experience a few moments outdoors just before waddling off to bed.  Maybe take a drink of choice and settle into a comfortable chair and simply rest.  Look up at the sky and wonder.  Allow the self to think or just be.  To get ready to sleep. I know.  You are thinking I don't know what I am talking about.  I beg to differ with you.  I do know.  Even when I was involved in my career, I loved to spend a few minutes outside in the evening.  Those few minutes were simply peaceful.  Most of us could use an extra dose of peace.

Tonight as I was looking up, my thoughts turned to a very special time in my young life.  I actually have the exact date.  It was December 28, 1953.  My aunt had traveled to Chicago.  That was a big deal then.  The roads were all two lanes.  And she lived in Arkansas.  When she returned, she brought this wonderful book for me.  The name is The Golden Treasury of Natural History.  I believe she bought it at the Natural History Museum in Chicago.  I was thrilled with it.  There are fabulous pictures in it.  It covers plants, animals, insects, reptiles, trees, fish, rocks, spiders fruits and more.  But the part that caught my attention was the section on the planets.

There are artist paintings of what they imagined the surface of the moon to look like.  I was fascinated by that.  The paintings show huge craters and mountains.  And there are these words:

There is much talk now of rocket trips to the moon.  To escape from the earth, a rocket would have to start away from the surface of the earth at a speed of nearly seven miles a second.  This speed is far greater than that of a rifle bullet.  A visit to the moon would certainly be full of danger.  A person unless protected would blow up just as a deep sea fish does when it is brought up from deep water.   There are no living things there to furnish food.  Another danger  in making the trip is that the rocket might miss its mark.  It is not easy to reach a target moving more than a thousand miles a minute.

This section ends with these words--To most people the pleasant features such as quiet and being light and buoyant would not be worth the risk of the trip.

My how life has changed during my lifetime.  Tonight as I sat thinking, a feeling of deep awe washed through me.  We know so much more now.  We have real pictures taken from space.  We have seen our earth from space.  We know we are one very small speck in a huge universe that we have yet to explore.  I sat there thinking about how we are held together on this ball spinning in space.  And I remembered all those evenings when I sat with this wonderful book reading those words, looking at those pictures and trying to imagine what the moon was really like.  It did not dawn on me that one day in my lifetime people would travel to that faraway place and send back pictures.  Amazing.

What is more amazing to me is the wonder of it all.  We are here a minute.  A speck of time in space.  We are gifted with a few years to experience life.  And then we are gone.  We are given the opportunity to taste life on this planet.  We build on the knowledge of the past and press on to a new future.  What shall we do with our minute?

Someday a young person will be given a book full of facts about natural history.  That young person will turn those pages and dream of things I cannot even imagine.  But, we will have shared a moment in time.  We will have shared a dream that includes deeper understanding of who we are and why we are here.  Be amazed, young person.  Be amazed.