WHO RESCUED WHO

It is 7:30 am.  Falling leaves are gathering in the yard and a pot of Carbonade Flamande (Beer Stew) is simmering on the front burner of the stove and chocolate chip muffins in grandma's cast iron muffin tin are in the oven.  Ten minutes until they are done.

I am sitting with a pumpkin macadamia biscotti and a cup of hazelnut coffee, with little Gracie's head resting on my lap.  She sleepily turns over to have her tummy scratched.  This is how I like to write!

 

I don't like to write to remind people that there is a war and that our young men and women fighting seem to have been forgotten.  Just this morning the New York Times tells its readers the same thing.  But today I want to focus on awe.  What inspires me?  What inspires you? 

"If we think long and hard enough about whatever inspired it, awe can turn things we've gotten used to into revelations that make us wonder how we could ever have taken them for granted." ~Paul Pearsall

Physician Joanna Siebert wrote of an experience that needs to be shared.  "Today I visited an 8 year old girl dying of cancer.  Her body was disfigured by her disease and its treatment.  She was in almost constant pain. As I entered her room, I was overcome almost immediately by her suffering - so unjust, unfair, unreasonable.  Even more overpowering was the presence of her grandmother lying in bed beside her with her huge body embracing this precious child.  I stood in awe, for I knew I was on holy ground.  I will never forget the great, gentle arms and body of this grandmother.  She never spoke while I was there.  She was holding and participating in suffering she could not relieve, and somehow, her silent presence was relieving it."

To me awe is having the courage to experience the wonders in our lives, the pain, the happiness, the joy, the misery, the ambivalence, the passion, the fears, and the love.  Awe carries with it the willingness to be surprised by the sacred, if we dare.  It is when we lose our sense of awe and wonder, that we miss the large and small miracles that occur each day in our lives.

For now I find I have not lost my sense of  awe and wonder, as I went downstairs to get a warm chocolate chip muffin, to find my two therapy dogs had pulled an entire unopened loaf of seven grain bread off of the counter and consumed it!  In some unique way it reminds me of a bumper sticker that says, "Who rescued who?"

Let the day begin!  I am inspired!