Wonder

I woke up to an unusual sound -- the sound of rain pouring down, hammering the hard dry earth. We are in the midst of extreme drought where I live, and the sound of rain drumming on my balcony rain is a welcome relief. It was raining so hard that most of the birds, so numerous this time of year, were silent -- except for one lone woodpecker in a tree right outside my window.

Yesterday the dead tree behind my apartment was taken down -- I'm grateful, for it was a danger in the heavy winds and strong thunderstorms that we often experience here (well, we haven't had too many thunderstorms lately). But this tree was the habitat of a family of woodpeckers -- the tiny baby woodpeckers were so precious. These little black and white birds not much bigger than a finger would peck away all day long. So the sound of the woodpecker this morning was especially welcome: I hope that his family has found a new home.

The rain stopped shortly after waking and the woods are again filled with birdsong. Since trees are fully leafed out, I cannot see many of the birds anymore. I enjoyed watching the many species that travel through these parts on their way south or north this winter/ We have a whole parade of bird migrations through here -- warblers, finches, swallows, you name it. The songs are always changing, though we have our 'regulars' too.

As the rain recently stopped, one of the wonders of this morning is the deep wet green of the world outside my window. It is such a deep green that it penetrates my soul with a strange mix of sensations: an abiding peace tinged with melancholy and a sense of gratitude for its holy mystery. There are no words for this green. It is changing as the sun is attempting to shine through the now-thinning clouds.

A really amazing source of wonder appeared in my mailbox this morning pointing me to this website:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

There I found successive pictures that took me from the vast reaches of space to the inner workings of the subatomic universe of electrons and protons inside an oak leaf. These pictures give me new appreciation for this day, this world, this universe. I am jarred out of my complacent approach to this day unfolding before me as I think about the mind-boggling layers upon layers of complexity that enable me -- or that baby woodpecker -- to survive and even thrive each second, each hour, each year.

All this wonder, including a pot of satisfying green tea -- and I haven't even been up two hours yet! May you find an abundance of wonder in this day too.