Awe Diary
I have read the suggestion that we should keep a gratitude diary as a way to increase our happiness and keep a positive state of mind. I think it is a good idea, but an incomplete one. At one point in my life, my gratitude diary (if I had kept one) would have been filled with entries like “I am grateful that this day wasn’t totally horrible” or some variation on that theme. It’s too easy to dilute your gratitude with bitterness.
I think we should be encouraged to keep an awe diary, a way to revere and appreciate the miracles which happen all around us. We humans devalue and take for granted so many of nature’s wonders, though we couldn’t begin to do them ourselves. Like the new spider web which appears overnight. Or the fact that squirrels, without any clocks or calendars or weather reports, know that it is time to start gathering nuts for winter. Or the basket of tomatoes that my neighbor brought me — all that beauty and flavor from just a few small seeds, water and sunshine. Amazing!
Look around and you will find the impossible everywhere. Recognize it and be grateful for it. That would be truly awesome.
