One day you go for a hike and you hear a crunching sound, only to realize it’s your own creaky knees. Your heart is pounding and your face is all red and shiny and you are passed on the trail by a very young person and then a very old person and it would be easy to feel a little discouraged.

But you see a waterfall and a baby bear and a mushroom as big as your head and then darkness falls and thousands of fireflies light up the night and you are just so filled up with the world that your own huffing and puffing seems very small indeed.

Dear ones, I wish for us this joyful smallness,

standing tiny and quiet

before the wonders of our world.