Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

I try to cultivate a sense of wonder all the time, so I had to think about what I did this year specifically. Interestingly, I think what has helped me cultivate wonder this year started when I started my job in Hutchinson three months ago (three months? really?).

I wake up butt early so I can have time to get ready, drive 45 minutes, and be at work by 8am. When I first started, it was before daylight savings time, and the first week or so, the sun had already risen by the time I was out on the highway. A few weeks in, I started seeing the sun rise every morning.

If you’ve never driven an open stretch of highway in the middle of prairie, farm, and pasture land, I may not do the description justice. When the days are clear and sunny, I feel like I’m driving in the middle of a giant orb. The sky is so. big. It’s expansive, massive, marvelous, blue and gold and full of light. I was lucky to start my job in that lovely transition-y time between summer and fall, when we get a week or two of those perfect days, with beautiful mornings and evenings that match each other in temperature and beauty.

I’ve seen mind blowing sunrises on some of these mornings. Pinks, blues, purples, greens, oranges, golds, red, peach and silver and every color in between. Opalescent linings on every cloud, if there are any, rippling through the sky, or poufy and inviting. I can’t do them justice. I often wish I had time and somewhere to stop and just take pictures all morning, but no photo would do the majesty of these sunrises justice either. I feel blessed to see them most mornings.

On the mornings where there is no sunset, I still appreciate the strangeness of seeing the clouds in all their various shades blues and grays and every shape and form I’ve seen clouds make, and some I haven’t. I am amazed at how far they go, the sky really is endless. Those cloudy mornings help me appreciate the colorful ones that much more.

Oh yeah, and these sunrises are mostly behind me when I’m driving northwest to work, so I often see the prettiest parts in my rear view and side mirrors. I may turn around every once in a while to look, but, as that’s not exactly safe, I don’t do it often.

So, there you have it. Wonder every work day. Who’da thunk?