"A man's interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town."
-Henry David Thoreau
My family and I have been doing a lot of camping and just hanging around outside lately. Again and again, the beauty of the little details around us that not everyone notices has caught my attention. Too often, I think people, myself included, get so busy and entangled in the regular and at times monotonous events in the web of life that we forget to look around at the little miracles that surround us.
Many times, all I have to do is pay attention to what my kids are paying attention to in order to get a nudge toward what is too important to miss. There is infinite wonder in an anthill, a garden full of sipping bees and butterflies, a wriggling millipede, the shed skin of a cicada still clinging to a tree, or flowers nodding in a breeze on a drowsy summer afternoon. If we take the time to pause and enjoy these moments with our senses fully engaged, we find refreshment and inspiration. My own little sage, pictured above, made me smile just the other day as we were walking, when he stopped in the middle of his stride, turned to the side, and picked a dandelion puff. With great delight, he blew and set the seeds dancing on their way in the sunlight. That is someone with his priorities straight, as far as I am concerned.
