The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy. – Psalm 65:8

One of my favorite things about springtime is how fast everything changes. It’s as if, once the first few leaves have popped out, every tree and shrub in the community goes into overdrive and in a matter of days everything seems to have filled in.

It’s like that all around the historic district. Hedges spilling onto sidewalks, masses of colorful wildflowers in the common, trees that looked dead before Easter suddenly resurrected. The imperative of life determined to race ahead and tell the story – the ongoing story. Of course it is the same story every year but nobody tires of hearing it – and seeing it – and celebrating with it.

Tuesday morning in the men’s group, one of the guys observed that we sometimes make such a big deal of Easter, or Christmas Eve or some other special day we forget to celebrate appropriately the other 360+ times the morning comes around and the sun shines and we are given another spectacular reminder that we are alive!

This is why I never tire of sharing sunrise photos from the Tar, or some vista from our neighborhood, or the lush greens of the Town Common, or the latest piece of work we have either started or competed here on Saint Patrick Street.

Because life is a gift, a privilege, an opportunity, and something unique every single day.

I believe that too many of us live without enough wonder. The thing is, we don’t have to be watching Niagara Falls from the Rainbow Bridge to stand in awe, I can do it from my front porch. And I can be thankful for this new day walking through the park here in Tarboro just as well as halfway up a mountain or on the beach at Emerald Isle.

Experiencing wonder means that we are mindful, in the moment, of the miracle that is life (my life, your life) and the privilege that is ours to walk on this good Earth.

In love and gratitude – DEREK