additional thoughts on time, wonder + awe:

"The often heard lament, 'I have so little time,' gives lie to the delusion that the daily life is of little significance. Everyone has exactly the same amount of time...But most of us, most of the time, take for granted what is closest to us and is most universal. The daily round of sunrise and sunset, for example, that marks the coming and passing of each day, is no longer a symbol of human hopes, or of God's majesty, but of a grind, something we must grit our teeth to endure. Our busy schedules, and even urban architecture, which all too often deprives us of a sense of the sky, has diminished our capacity to marvel with the psalmist in the passage of time as an expression of God's love for us and for all creation."

It was God who made the great lights,

whose love endures forever;

the sun to rule in the day,

whose love endures forever;

the moon and stars in the night,

whose love endures forever.

(Psalm 136: 7-9)

~ Kathleen Norris, The Quotidian Mysteries

Saltzburg, Austria 2009