I remember going to the Petrified Forest National Park as a kid. I didn't remember it to be as incredible as it actually was! I knew as a kid that there were trees that had turned to stone due to a process similar to fossilization. What I had forgotten was that these trees hadn't transformed into dull gray stone but incredibly beautiful quartz.
The other neat thing we learned about was that these sometimes massive trunks hadn't been transported to this desert location from somewhere else but rather the land we were standing on had itself moved! I'm a fairly convinced believer in the reality of Pangaea or at least something similar to it. Whether or not it took billions of years or a catastrophic flood or a combination of the two -- that we can discuss over a cup of tea as long as you promise not to get too heated regarding whatever position you hold. I love having discussions with people I agree with and sometimes even more with people I disagree with (because it forces me to think!) providing that it is a discussion and not standing there listening to someone yell their viewpoints loudly without being willing to dialogue back and forth.
I digress.
The Petrified Forest is an incredible place - along with the Painted Desert, which is part of the same park. It was even more meaningful to me as I watched our kids walk along paths that I had walked when I was their age - to touch the trees-turned-jewels and to see the rainbows of colors and the sheer size of them and to be in awe.
I think sometimes we are in short of "awe" moments in our day-to-day life. Not because they aren't there but because they are at times so small that we miss them if we aren't looking for them.
Pausing to stare at a tree-shaped colorful quartz, knowing that it used to be a part of a rain forest in this very spot and yet also very faraway - that is almost required. Who could walk past? But the dew drops on a spider's web and the way water bubbles over stones in a creek (or even the way it rushes down a gutter) and how white cotton-ball clouds change shape in the sky...those "awe" moments require more purposeful attention.
We are enjoying these big moments of awe. And we are continuing to practice living our lives at a pace that allows for the "small" moments too.
But I digress.
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