The Zimmer Zoo

One of the activities this month for Fishful Thinking is to create an Awe Wall. I *LOVE* this idea! There are so many things out there that fill a child (or even an adult) with Awe – and it’s always been fun to point some of these things out for our family.

Awe is what we feel when we experience great goodness or great beauty. You might feel awe when staring at the Grand Canyon, or when watching strangers rally to help people suffering from a natural disaster. When we feel awe, we feel part of something much larger than ourselves; we feel connected to others and to the world.

Burke has always taken notice of the things outside the window. Even as a toddler, he’d point out the trees and things as we were driving along. Maggie takes notice of things, but it much quieter about it. Logan is (as usual) somewhere in between the two.

We haven’t started our Awe Wall yet (frankly, I’m not sure where we’ll put it), but I do know a few things we’ll add to it when the time comes! And perhaps we’ll just do a virtual wall for now. 🙂

One of the things that always fills me with awe – and I’m happy to report that it does the same for all of my kids – is a rainbow! They even ask if I can create one some days LOL!

“Rainbow” has been Burke’s favorite color for about a year now. And Logan has just declared that his favorite color is no longer orange, it’s rainbow.

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I know that this year’s snowfall made everyone in our family sit up and take notice. There was a CRAZY amount of snow this year!! I think at one point we had about 60 inches of snow. Maybe more? I’m not even sure anymore…I’ve blocked it out 😉

It was one of those years where there was so much snow, you couldn’t even really go out and play in it. We couldn’t let the dog out into the back yard because he could just walk over the fence!

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Recently, our church had a 30 hour famine held by the youth. These kids opted to not eat for 30 hours (they did have juice and water – so everyone was safe). They made sandwiches and soup and went into Boston to help feed some of the homeless there. Then they came back and told the entire congregation about their 30 hours (well, 24…they were still “in” the 30 hour time frame while at church – awaiting their rice and beans feast they’d all sit down to after church was over). The selflessness and willingness of these young people always fills me we such emotion. (geez, I’m getting teary just writing about it!) They take the time to really talk and get to know the homeless people they’re helping. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to take part! (I really wish I had a picture of these kids – they really are incredible.) And I think part of the reason that I’m filled with Awe at this is that there are probably over *50* kids who take part in it!

I can’t wait to start taking notice and add more to our wall (even if it is just a Word doc for now). What would go on your Awe Wall?

Filed under: fishful thinking | Tagged: awe, awe wall, fishful thinking |