Over the years I have been many places and I have been able to see many wondrous things. 

Flaming Gorge reservoir for example, in Green River Wyoming. It is an amazing 110 mile long, steeply banked reservoir whose sides burn red with rusted iron within the soil. It is a vast and beautiful place!

 I have been in almost every major city in our country and marveled at the massive amounts of concrete and humanity that fill such a small area! 

On our family farm, we have an old pine tree that has a trunk that is so big it would take three or more people linking arms to surround the tree! A true giant of a tree that I have been amazed with since my youth! 

I have driven through the Southwest desert lands and I was awestruck at the vastness and ongoing miles of desert that stretched as far as I could see. 

You see I, like many of you, seem to be amazed and impressed by “big” things.  Things that are larger than normal, larger than life, the unusual I guess you would say! 

 If you followed our first trip this year that Lisa and I took, I shared a picture of Lisa standing in front of a HUGE rock.  This was probably the largest single rock I have ever seen! Just amazing! 

 The ground was littered with rocks of all sizes, shapes, and colors,  yet what got my attention was the one rock that wasn’t like the others.  The “exceptional” one in the area. 

Ordinary usually takes a back seat to the unusual in my world.  I tend to appreciate things that, for whatever reason, are exceptional or remarkable.  Usually small doesn’t make the cut!

The tree that beats the odds and outlasts all of its neighbors to grow to exceptional size, now that’s something to admire!  The canyon that was carved over the passing of time and yes even the huge rock that was most likely deposited there by the last glacier that covered the area. These are the things that normally get my attention and admiration.

Until this last trip.  

As I stood on the rocky outcrop over 100 feet from the ocean below,  I was admiring the massive cliffs to both my left and my right ( of course I was).  The ocean stretched out in front of me until the curvature of the earth pulled it from my view.  Truly a scene to marvel and wonder at! And I was lost in the moment!

As I looked down to take a step to the left so I could get a better footing, something caught my eye.

A small flash of green at the bottom of a crevis on the rock outcrop I was standing on.  As I looked closer I realized there was a small plant in there. “Must have blown in on the wind and landed in the crack”, I thought to myself. Or a seagull dropped it there.  I got down to look at the plant expecting to see something loose but no, this little guy was GROWING here! Where was the soil?  I couldn’t see any!  All I saw was rock and life refusing to give up.  

I was amazed at the tenacity of this little plant.  Somehow it is finding a way to survive on a rocky outcrop with no visible soil to feed its roots.  Nothing for it to flourish in and yet there it was, finding a way to survive when the odds are so stacked against it!

Isn’t the fight for life this little guy is making worth as much of my admiration as the massive pine who lives on the fertile soil of our farm? 

 Is the fact that this plant is surviving in what seems like impossible circumstances just as wondrous as a big rock deposited by a glacier about 10,000 years ago?

I think so!  

 I need to slow down and marvel at the small treasures around me. Treasures that I miss every day!  I need to stop focusing only on the things that jump out at me and “LOOK” for what wonders are all around me. If you look for what is amazing around you verses simply letting it jump out at you,  you will find there is more out there to both see and appreciate. 

I wonder if the little guy will make it?

Probably not,  but it won’t be from a lack of effort that’s for sure!