Married to Amazement

This is my true dream. This is my one, deepest wish; to live the rest of my entire life married to amazement.

Mary Oliver knows how to say it.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life 

I was a bride married to amazement. 

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

I think one of the grandest lessons I’ve learned lately has been the understanding that if we are still, we’ll see that there is more amazement, magic, and gasps of delight in the everyday little moments than in any one BIG moment. And then I wonder…how many little moments of glee have I allowed to pass by unnoticed while waiting for some big moment that either never came or was never as big as I thought it would be?

I remember a line from the novel The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, that took my breath for a moment and it comes back to me time and time again right when I least expect it (those are the best).

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

How many times have I walked past a rainbow of colors, the chirps of birds, the flutter of a butterfly's wings, a cloud that resembles my daughter’s face, wind swaying the branches of a tree and then another and another until a whole field looks like it’s dancing? How many times have I walked past people and not even acknowledged their existence? Or their joy, sadness, or boredom? 

Sometimes when I look up from the keyboard of this life I see a million stories in every corner, song, facial expression, picture, sigh from my daughter’s mouth, book, and brush of fur against my ankle from a pet. 

Amazement. Noticing the color purple. Looking up.

Likely 3 of the easiest yet most fulfilling tasks I can achieve each day.

Here’s to not pissing God off.