The Feeling of Awe

A Daily Appointment With the Transcendent

Awe is an emotion I try to chase every day. From admiring the sunrise on my morning commute, to taking slow runs on forest trails, to watching birds outside my window as I write and draw, my life feels fuller when I cultivate awe.

Small wonders are everywhere, so simple and ordinary they are easy to overlook. It helps a daily appointment with awe. Happiness researcher Arthur Brooks recommends taking an hour-long pre-dawn walk each day to experience the transcendent and to make your familiar surroundings feel new. I love this idea—but if you’re like me and have young kids that wake up before sunrise demanding food, this may not be a realistic daily practice.

So I’ll try to walk for fifteen minutes in the morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on the time of year and the rhythms of the family schedule. A quarter hour each day to do nothing but walk around and look. What a luxury!

Winter is an unlikely season for awe. With cold days, bitter wind, and a lack of sunshine, January and February can be downright depressing. But there, on my morning commute: brilliant, vivid light, painting the landscape along the highway. I’m dazzled by the changing colors of dawn.

“Big world, little me,” is one way of describing the feeling of awe. Or in a more metaphysical sense, “ALL world, NO me.” In the most striking moments of awe, we feel consumed by a vastness. Plunged into the depths. Scattered among the stars. The only proper response? Gratitude.

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For more comics on the rhythms of the seasons and the wonders of nature, check out my new book, POETRY COMICS, published by Chronicle Books: