As I sit here writing this on a beautiful Friday night at my local Starbucks, I’m surrounded by noise and movement. Now, for someone like me that loves energy and the tell tale signs of other humans around, this doesn’t bother me or hinder my concentration. In fact, that’s exactly why I’m sitting here on this busy main street corner- to be around the noise and the hustle and the bustle of my tiny town I call home.

However, as much I appreciate the coming and going, the laughing and the shouting as people walk by, and the brief clips of songs coming out of the windows of passing cars, I can’t help but think, “where is everyone going?” Some may be on their way home from a busy day at work, or going to their loved one’s house. Others may be just starting their work day or going on a first date with someone they can’t help but get butterflies in their stomach for when they hear their name.

And this, this is what makes up life- the coming and going, the noise, the tell tale signs of other humans around us.

But I can’t help but think, “why does everything move so fast?”

I often get teased about my awe of the little things in life that somehow go unnoticed by many. The funny thing is though, they aren’t even little things. Yet, somehow, the world seems to pass it by and not give it a second glance, if it was even lucky enough to get a first.

I often find myself stopping, whether in the middle of a walk to my car, the few steps down my driveway, or while out with friends, at night.

And I look up.

I look up at the open, vast, seems close enough to touch but somehow possibly infinite, dark and bright at the same time, always there, sky. That big, beautiful, sky full of tiny pinpricks of light that could somehow possibly be bigger than this entire planet we call Earth. And I wonder.

I wonder why others don’t stop to look at this masterpiece right above our heads. All it takes is a simple flick of the eyes to the heavens to see it.

But we don’t look.

We’re so obsessed or overly focused on the place that we’re going, the awaited end point, the hoped for outcome, that we forget to stop. And look. And awe, in every little thing, big and small, that’s around us every second of every day.

I feel as though we often forget that the anticipated destination is not the only thing worth noticing. There’s a whole lot of everything in between where you’re starting and where you’re going.

So please, please, stop and take a second to smell some wild flowers next to the sidewalk, smile at the peace of a sleeping child in the grocery store, or stare at the sky, as I am doing right now, with its streaks of gold and pink and violet,saying goodnight to another wonderful day.

Please, please, stop from your run to cover to get out of a rainstorm to throw your head back and awe at the very fact that water is falling from the sky, or that light appears to crack it in half, or that somehow, an illusion of color may arch across it after that last boom has finished shaking the earth.

Please, please, next time you’re at a red light, notice that new restaurant that opened up, or the very fact that you just saw hundreds of faces that you’ll probably never see again, that are all going from here to there, just like you are, in a single, ordinary, day.

And please, please remember, that as fast as this world is spinning and you’re trying to keep up with it, there is so much unnoticed that deserves just the opposite- to be noticed.