“If your heart is full of wonder you will live a wonderful life.”

So here I stand at sunset on a secluded stretch of beach in Santa Barbara. I tagged on a day at the end of a business trip to just “breathe”. I am waiting for the sun to set. It is beautiful, but it is taking a little longer than I thought. In fact, I am getting a little restless and impatient.

Here I am amidst the wonders of creation: rugged rock and vegetation strewn cliffs behind me; golden sands stretch out for miles to my left and right; the powerful Pacific Ocean crashes in wave after wave at my feet as the brilliant red flaming sphere we call the sun inches closer and closer to the horizon soon to give way to, and lend it’s reflected glory to, the moon – while billions of other suns we call stars fill the night sky.

And I am impatient because it’s taking longer than I anticipated for the sun to set.

Isn’t that pathetic?

What has happened to me? How have I lost the wonder and the mystery of it all? I have heard it said that all over the world people are asleep, but the few who are awake live in a constant state of amazement. I don’t want to be asleep – I want to live in a constant state of amazement. I want to be awake.

How about you? Do you feel asleep sometimes? Have you lost the wonder and the mystery of this life? Have the pressures of business squeezed the wonder and joy out of your life?

This simple sunset I am watching at the edge of the Pacific is full of mystery and wonder. A few stats: It takes about 8 minutes for the light from the sun to make the trip to earth – that’s about 150,000,000 km. It is about 100 times larger than the earth – that means you could fit 1,300,000 earths into the sun. The sun is comprised primarily of hydrogen. The sun emits solar flares that explode off its surface into space with the force of 1,000,000 atomic bombs.

Charged particles from the sun create the northern lights – those magical multi-colored dancing waves of light we see sometimes in winter. “Aurora Borealis” are particles of the sun that travel through space, are drawn to the magnetic poles and then burst into flame when they reach the earth’s atmosphere.

Back to the setting sun though; the sun does not actually set. No, the earth is spinning at 1,600 km per hour so that every 24 hours we make one complete revolution. We are spinning on an axis of precisely 23.4 degrees. We are also flying through space at 108,000 km per hour so that we rocket around the sun every 365 days – approximately. And, the gravitational pull of the sun keeps us in a precise orbit, while the earth’s gravity keeps us all from flying off this planet we call home.

Wow!

The Pacific Ocean is 165,000,000 square km and up to 35,000 feet deep. It is filled with billions of organisms of all shapes and sizes. The vastness of it is beyond comprehension. In fact, we know more about the moon than we do about the ocean. The tides regularly come and go in response to the moon.

How does that work??

Water evaporates from the ocean, in response to the sun, condenses on condensation nuclei to form clouds, which then rain down water on the earth to nourish life. This is the water cycle. Water molecules are continually being recycled. (Does that mean that all the water that exists on the earth today is comprised of the same molecules that were around at the beginning of the earth?)

And the air I am breathing as I watch this sunset is made possible by plants that absorb water and sunlight to produce oxygen through the miraculous compound known as chlorophyll.

Amazing!

I am overwhelmed as I consider the mystery and wonder of what is going on around me to simply make my watching a sunset possible – not to mention the millions of mysteries that go on in my body to enable me to stand on the beach, see my surroundings, feel the wind, taste the salt air, hear the sea birds cry, and breathe oxygen to live…

Business is a battle that can kill the life in us. We have got to ensure that we recognize this and take time to breathe and renew the wonder in our lives. Get out and awaken your sense of wonder – it’s essential for leading a truly wonderful life.