“The show” was scheduled for 10:25 am. I had arrived with plenty of time to find a bathroom, get the lay of the land, and enjoy a bit more coffee. The benches were full and people had started claiming spots sitting and standing around the wooden boardwalk. I took up the space left between two larger groups and made myself comfy. I sipped some more coffee and made sure that I was happy with the view. I thought about moving for a better photo op. By then, though, more people had gathered and I didn’t have high hopes for anything better. As we waited, I could hear the rustling of kiddos behind me and shifted a little closer to one of the groups.
As it approached 10:25, there were periodic teases of what was to come. After the collective gasps, you could hear murmurs of “Maybe it would start early.”
10:25 came and went and we were still just waiting. There were grumbles of frustration…impatience. But we all stayed.
At 10:28, an eternity after the schedule time, Old Faithful began the show. There were gasps and oohs and ahhhs…cameras snapped and children watched with awe. And then it slowly came to a sputtering stop.
People began to disperse. And there was a sense of…disappointment? Their shoulders and occasionally their mouths, said, “That’s all?”
It reminded me of coming to the summit of a grueling hike to be surrounded by fog. People would glance around, sigh in resignation, then turn and leave.
We have a tendency to treat nature like a tool for instant gratification. We approach nature with expectations, the same way we approach a coworker in a conversation about KPIs. And we get irritated when nature fails to perform on command. The audacity!
Instead…I choose to see whatever nature has to offer in any given moment as an opportunity to behold something wonderful. What an honor it is to sit and watch the display that is before me in any given moment.
So…let’s go find some more moments.
From Sunsets to Storm Clouds 