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1. overwhelming wonder, admiration, respect, or dread
2. archaic  power to inspire fear or reverence

A Sense of Awe 

Awe:

1. overwhelming wonder, admiration, respect, or dread
2. archaic  power to inspire fear or reverence

I have always thought that to have the Department of the Interior in Washington DC was a mistake. It needed to be out in the world. It needed to be headed by people who understood that there is more to this country than cities. And that we need to feed our souls a sense of wonder.

Now the Trump Administration is coming for the National Parks. The parks where people go to get away from the city and to do something they can afford to do that is away from a city, out under the stars. And before you ask, I spent all the vacations of my childhood in the middle of nowhere. And it was GLORIOUS!

I grew up in West Hollywood in the 60s and 70s when the air was bad and the ocean view from our front yard was obscured by smog. Being in Colorado or anywhere out in the awe was vital to Dad’s work but also to our sense of space and nature and life.

In 2015 I went to do a yoga retreat in Montana and afterwards a friend of mine and I went into Yellowstone. I had been there before but to see it with someone from a town in Connecticut was to see it in a new way. She kept asking, “How far am I seeing? I mean, really is that yards or miles or what?” She could not get over that she could see forever. I didn’t expect that reaction because I knew she took daily walks along the coast near her home. There is a vastness to the ocean but when you really think about it, unless there is a ship out there, there are no markers. In Yellowstone, driving in from the north, you see mountains and valleys and more mountains and even more mountains. They stretch on for what seems like forever.

People go to our National Parks to see nature in a way they haven’t before. They see oceans and mountains and lakes and rivers and deserts and cliff dwellings and it all adds to their sense of wonder and their placement in the world.

Humans are not the most important things in the world but we certainly can destroy it.

Please take time to ask your representatives to protect our parks from all that would destroy them…Mining, harvesting timber and the like will change forever our beautiful untouched places.

We need the rangers  and park workers to come back. We need them employed so people can enjoy the parks, get questions answered, and get rescued when there is a problem.

NPCA.org/dial will take you where you can contact your senator or congressperson with your beliefs and desires regarding this. 

PS- My list of National Parks/ State Parks that I remember visiting.

Yosemite, Acadia, Glacier, Yellowstone, Mesa Verde, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Haleakalā, Hawai’i Volcanoes, Olympic, Zion. And probably more that I don’t remember as I was traveling everywhere from birth!

And now a bit about the AWE of the world from 2010 when I was finished with my main treatment for cancer and we took a trip to Yosemite. 

Is there enough awe in your life? This month’s Oprah magazine has much in it about awe. One of the things that really interested me is that when confronted with the awe inspiring people see their place in the world as a part of something larger. People who are looking at a hallway, when asked to describe themselves with “I am” will say –I am part of a soccer team. I am a member of this club. When confronted with a t rex  they say I am a human being. I am part of God’s world. I am a member of the human race. We are led to benevolence when confronted with the awe inspiring. We help out each other on grand scales.

I went to  Yosemite with my husband and the girls. Talk about Awe inspiring. I have watched the two girls become more and more joined at the hip in the awe inspiring wilderness of Yosemite valley. We went on two short walks yesterday  –one about 2 miles and the other about 1 and 1/2 miles…then today went out for a 4 mile hike up to one of the many falls–the last mile was mostly straight up. S and Christopher led the hike and K hung back with me. I kept up for the most part —taking breaks as I needed but for only about 30 seconds here and there.  I was impressed with myself as since my last surgery I have not been able to work out consistently. I have photos to prove that we all made it up and back!

I hear Julia Roberts from “Eat Pray Love” saying something along the lines of “I just want to marvel at something.

Well, I have spent the past three days marveling at things around me. I have also decided a few things. First that I must find things to create awe in me and my family. I want the girls around awesome sites so they keep remembering they are part of the whole instead of thinking they are the whole. I like that idea of  something inspiring reverence. Second– that I must work out harder and harder so I am in terrific shape by next summer when we travel to high altitudes to hike. I want nothing holding me  back from anything we want to do.
Happy Weekend!