One Awesome a Day- Take Two

It's a rare occurence that I don't sleep well. Aside from my recent anxiety and concern for my kids settling into new schools, I normally sleep soundly--waking up feeling rested. However, last night was one of those nights...I tossed and turned, stared at the ceiling, and watched the clock turn over hour after hour. By the time the sun came up, the thought of facing the day made me feel frazzled.

Add fatigued and forgetful to frazzled, and it makes for a morning where I can't find a single thing I need or everything that I want is on a different floor of the house, forcing me to go up and down the stairs, or to go in and out of rooms. Despite the frantic pace and my frantic mood, I did manage to get both kids out the door with lunch and homework ON TIME.

It was when I was trying to do the same for myself, while running up the stairs in our front hall that I happened to catch a glimpse of the doe just outside the window, in the side yard, eating plants.

We see deer in our yard all the time. And we see them in the wetland (behind the house) daily. It's not that this sight is something new for me. But, seeing the doe so close to the window--so near my own life and routine AND looking right at me, as if she wanted to start a conversation... well, it was awesome!

I was concentrating on a few million thoughts when the doe first caught my eye. It only took a split second for our mutually stare to stop us both from our tasks. Maybe that's what made it so awesome--the curiosity that I felt from the eyes of the animal looking at me was so unique and heart-warming. Feeling frantic, frazzled, fatigued...it all drained from me as I stood on the stairs looking out the window, feeling nose to nose with this small doe.

One of the few million thoughts running through my head just seconds before, had to do with the One Awesome a Day idea. I was feeling as if the day was already off to a bad start and thinking I'd have a slim chance of seeing or doing something awesome when I'd had no sleep and didn't feel as if I had any of my ducks in a row for the day. But then there was this incredibly peaceful and grounding experience that appeared out of nowhere and could be described by no other word than, "Awesome!".

Normally, the deer in the wetland travel in packs--up to 12 at time go running through in the winter. Never do I see just ONE! And for that, I knew I wanted to get my camera. But, how could I look away from this incredible, and no doubt rare, connection to this one, lone doe in my yard? Stepping away from the window might mean that I'd come back to the scene that is most typical on this side of the house: just plants--no deer.

Obviously, I took the risk. And when I returned she was still there and still willing to look right at me, almost more curious about the camera and the flash than she was of me the first time. I got a mediocre image that doesn't come close to capturing the magic I felt.

But maybe, that's what experiencing something "Awesome!" is really about--not being able to adequately re-create the scene.