As I have stated before I love in a lot of different ways. I like to say I easily love the nouns: persons, places, and things. I can become enamored with anything when walking down a city street, or driving down a country road, or just stepping out the front door. It takes a mere moment to look around, and these little things fill my soul with joy. I see a dilapidated barn and begin to wonder when it was its happiest, or an almost worn advertisement painted on the side of a brick building and imagine what the street looked like when it was painted, or trying to find the reflection of the world in a few drop. It could also be the smell of leaves in the fall, or the smell of fresh bread when walking by a bakery. Heck, it could even be a sound, the sound of my kayak paddle hitting the water, the sound of the rain through an open window, or the peepers in the spring. If I have whipped myself into a frenzy none of this is possible. I must be present and open to what the world has to offer, and I sure as hell cant be looking at my phone.

What I have recently started to realize is the magical quality this creates for my children’s lives. That my attention to the small details actually fills them with wonder for the world around them. And wonder and reverence are becoming a lost art. With a life so fast-paced and everything at our immediate consumption we are losing the recognition of what is actually happening around us. My children take my inspiration and run with it. When I look for the world in a dewdrop they see dinosaurs in it! The awesomeness of such a thing never would have occurred to me. I see the world around me and imagine it at its best, they have an endless amount of possibilities at their disposal. It becomes a reciprocal relationship where they in turn open my eyes further. If is not your strong suit have no fear, I believe that finding beauty only takes intention.

One of my many jobs over the past 10 years has been running a papermaking studio. Every so often, as the mood strikes me, I decided that instead of creating art we will go for a walk and find inspiration that guides us when working with our hands inside. I ask each member of our group to first find three things whos beauty speaks to their heart, and then to carry those images with them for the rest of the day, then lastly we translate that into our next artistic studio.

This exercise has served the masses well, so I would ask you to do the same. If you too are wanting to create wonder and reverence for yourself or others then you’ll need to do some homework. Take yourself out of doors, and intentionally look around you. Pause from time to time, close your eyes, and listen. Take some deep breath’s. And open your eyes, what is it that you can see differently now that you are fully present. I find this easier to do outside, but of course it is totally possible to do at home. To each their own, my dew drop could be your drippy faucet. That is the point, that everything is worth our interest and love, we just have to let it be.