Taking Pictures of Squirrels

As part of my sabbatical earlier this year, I spent two weeks visiting national parks in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.  I hiked for a week in the backcountry of Canyonlands, then spent a day each at Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Lake Powell, and Canyon de Chelly.  Although I am a Pennsylvania boy through and through, and I love the beauty of the Keystone state, I saw breathtaking scenery that filled me with awe.

Maybe too much awe.

Scenery that, at the beginning my trip, seemed majestic struck me as mundane and ordinary toward the end.  I found myself looking at majestic mountains and amazing rock formations and ancient petroglyphs, but my only reaction was “eh.”  I had already taken hundreds of photos of breathtaking scenery; why did I need to take one more?

I realized that I was experiencing what I dubbed “awe-fatigue.”  It’s similar to “compassion-fatigue,” which generous people feel after they have responded to one desperate need for help after another.  After a while you simply run out of the ability to respond with compassion to the victims of the latest disaster, because your tank of compassion has run dry.  In the same way, my ability to have my jaw drop in wonder and say “Wow, isn’t that amazing!” had reached its limit.

Then I saw it, as I was walking along the Virgin River in Zion National Park, swollen with flood waters from the melting snows in far-away mountains and surrounded

sheer cliffs towering 2000 feet over my head.  My fellow park visitors were captivated by the squirrels who scampered and begged for food along the footpath.  They oohed and ahhed, called their friends over to see, and stopped to take pictures.  Of squirrels.  Regular old gray squirrels, just like the ones you’ll find in any city park or backyard tree.  They were blind to the extraordinary because they were focused on the ordinary.

How often are we like tourists in Zion National Park, taking pictures of squirrels while ignoring the majesty around us?  God has placed us in an incredible world and has surrounded us with amazing people.  He constantly lavishes unbelievable love and blessing and grace upon us.  But we respond with “awe fatigue” of our own, noticing only the problems and difficulties, focusing upon the trivial when God thrusts the astounding right under our oblivious noses.

Today, take a moment.  Clear your mind of the clutter of everyday living.  Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and look at your life again.  Notice the astounding beauty.  Appreciate the blessings around you.  And most importantly, pay attention to the people in your life.  Notice how amazing and profound they are.

And give thanks.