Life is filled with moments of wonder. Some of them are extravagant and obvious like this:

But many of them are small and easy to miss if we’re not paying attention. The other night I was working on my laptop in our schoolroom, prepping an online course that was going live the next day. This is side work for me (my third job) so I have to squeeze it into the margins of everything else we have going on. I was feeling the stress of the deadline and I was also tired from a busy day. The TV was on in the other room and that Geico commercial with “The Final Countdown” came on. Ian, our 3 year old, loves that song right now (he’s also into Queen these days) and seemed disappointed that it went off so quickly. Busy as I was, I saw an opportunity and called up the original video on YouTube and played it for him. He sang. He danced. He even threw his head and arms back one time and arched his back like he’d been a rock star for years. He had all the moves down. Sheer joy. That’s what he was feeling, conveying, and sharing. I didn’t feel nearly as stressed or tired after that.

I had another small moment of wonder last night driving home from work together with Emily who just started her first job. We both got off at 8pm and spent the ride home comparing our days and talking about getting used to a new job with unfamiliar surroundings while performing unfamiliar tasks. I felt such gratitude in that moment and I feel it again now reflecting on it. Such a small moment, driving home from work together. Such wonder.

My day today will be filled with another string of these small moments of wonder. Your day will be filled with them too. They won’t be as flashy as the aurora borealis but they will be there all the same. Let’s not miss them.