365 Days of Surprise: The Magic of Beginning an Awe Journal

The information: every part is dangerous.
Poets: okay, however what if every part is dangerous and we nonetheless fall in love with the moon and be taught one thing from the flowers. ~Nikita Gill

My dad died after I was thirty-one. I wasn’t a toddler however barely felt like an grownup. He had reached retirement, however solely simply. Mary Oliver obtained it proper when she wrote, “Doesn’t every part die finally, and too quickly?”

A number of months later, I pulled myself out the door and off to work. The December climate and my coronary heart had been each uncooked. Then I noticed it: a single rosebud on a ragged bush.

I laughed aloud. A rose blooming in winter? After which I began to cry—for the wondrous absurdity of a tiny, beautiful factor proclaiming its place in a darkish world.

This pink bud didn’t make issues “all higher.” And but, for a second, I remembered that my coronary heart was able to feeling greater than grief. It had house for marvel and delight.

I’ve spent the final three years learning the emotion of awe. I may share research about how experiencing marvel makes us extra beneficiant, humble, and curious. I’ve written an entire ebook on the emotional, psychological, and cognitive advantages of this sense.

However right here’s one factor I actually love about this totally human emotion: awe doesn’t require something from us however our consideration. We don’t should do something to really feel awe. We don’t should be something we aren’t. We simply have to indicate up on the earth, eyes and ears open.

When researchers ask individuals around the globe to explain a second after they skilled awe, they typically level to peculiar moments. A bit of music that introduced tears to their eyes. A stranger serving to somebody in want. A blooming cherry blossom tree. The scent of the earth after the rain. Holding somebody’s hand of their last days.

This 12 months, I made a decision to maintain an awe diary. I name it “365 Days of Surprise.” I’m drawing inspiration from my late grandmother. She stored a day by day diary for over fifty years, and most of her entries are just one or two sentences. Taken collectively, these micro-entries paint a wealthy image of the rhythm of her years.

So I really feel no strain to jot down an extended journal entry every day. Only a sentence or two about one thing I noticed, heard, tasted, smelled, or discovered about that day that made me say, “Oh wow.”

It’s now mid-March, and I’ve written seventy-seven entries. Can I share just a few of them?

Day 9:

Listening to President Carter’s funeral, I used to be touched by this reflection from his grandson, Jason Carter: “In my forty-nine years, I by no means perceived a distinction between his public face and his non-public one. He was the identical individual. For me, that’s the definition of integrity.”

Day 27:

Final night time I randomly grabbed some outdated fortune cookies earlier than driving house a gaggle of youngsters. “Right here, take a look at your fortunes for the week,” I stated. The primary teen learn, “You’ll be surrounded by the love and laughter of excellent associates. Ha! Effectively, that one already got here true.”

Day 34:

Whereas on a morning stroll, I obtained a textual content from a good friend. She had woken as much as the sound of a neighbor shoveling her driveway—a reminder, she wrote, that there are “good individuals in all places.”

Day 37:

A stupendous household good friend died in the present day. She was ninety-five, and I bear in mind when—at practically eighty—she noticed our household throughout the seaside and ran full throttle to greet us, with a hand atop her head to maintain her sunhat from blowing away. I wish to age like that.

Day 38:

I introduced Humfrid the Octopus with me on a faculty go to in the present day. On the finish of my presentation, a kindergarten sidled up: “Can Humfrid give me a hug?” I replied, “With eight arms, he may give you a quadruple hug!”

Day 41:

Discovering a second of marvel was tougher in the present day. So this afternoon whereas driving, I attempted to maintain my senses open. And nearly immediately, I obtained caught behind a faculty bus.

However, however, however . . . whereas stopped, I observed a border collie sitting at consideration. The second his teenage individual stepped off the bus, he bolted down the lengthy driveway and danced completely happy circles round his child.

Day 42:

It was fourteen levels after I took the canine out this morning, however the daybreak was filled with birdsong. In a month, the migrating birds will begin returning—however I’m so grateful to the hardy little birds who stick round all winter.

Day 62:

I backed right into a automobile final night time in a small, darkish parking zone. Tears. I couldn’t discover the proprietor, so I left a notice with my information and contrition. The proprietor texted me later, we shared all pertinent insurance coverage particulars, after which he wrote this:

“The automobile is a automobile. They make 1000’s, if not tens of millions, of them, and it’s no good for me to be indignant due to an accident. Issues occur. Higher vitality with happiness and kindness. Hope you might have a stunning day.”

Day 65:

I got here house late from a gathering final night time. My thirteen-year-old was nonetheless up—writing heartfelt thank-you notes to individuals who had supported a service mission she had helped arrange.

Day 73:

Took my canine to be groomed. Whereas he ran across the groomer’s yard together with her pups, she confirmed me an envy-inducing “She Shed” that her dad constructed for her final 12 months. Thoughts you that she is my age and he’s in his 70s. She obtained teary and stated, “He’s the perfect man I’ve ever recognized. I’m so fortunate.”

Day 74:

I didn’t want my Merlin app to establish woodpeckers in the present day. No less than three had been rattling the neighborhood at daybreak with their hammering. In different information, I heard my first red-winged blackbird of the season.

Day 76:

I wasn’t certain whether or not my youngest nonetheless believed in leprechaun magic and did the standard low-key-but-fun mischief round the home after the children went to mattress. When he got here down the steps this morning, he broke into an enormous grin and whispered to me, “You probably did a great job this 12 months, Mother!” And there it’s. One other type of magic.

In search of out marvel has grow to be a behavior. I discover myself wanting up after I exit to stroll the canine, paying extra consideration to excellent news in my doom scrolling, and pausing to pay attention after I hear one thing beautiful. Like discovering that rose on a December day, these moments of marvel don’t repair what hurts. However they whisper every day, “This world is tough. And this world is so, so great.”