awesome | The Direction of Intention

Expect Awe [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on August 1, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

I can’t remember what we were searching to find. What I know is that we forgot what we were doing because we bumbled into a James Taylor concert recorded by the BBC in 1970. He was 22. An old soul. His performance in 1970 buoyed our spirits on a humid stormy morning in 2025.

While there was a break in the rain we ran outside to check the rapid growth of the sweet potato. Last week we discovered a sweet potato in the stair-well potato basket that seemingly overnight had become an alien. Hot pink tentacles reached from the basket like so many periscopes. We pondered what to do and decided to experiment and planted it. If you are a farmer or otherwise schooled in the art of growing things, please feel free to roll your eyes. Since we are not farmers and total novices at growing things, the explosion of leaves from the once-hot-pink-tentacles seems to us like a miracle. I hope this awe never dissolves into the ordinary. I like running outside with the express expectation of being amazed.

Yesterday we scrolled through some pictures taken in the fall of 2021. Following my father’s funeral we drove into the Colorado mountains to walk a piece of land by a lake, the place where he most loved to go to fish. The place where he found his peace. We lit a candle. We walked around the lake. We marveled at the color of the leaves, vibrant yellow, hot red and orange. We grieved and told stories. Looking through the photographs filled me with gratitude: at the time we knew we had to go to the mountain to celebrate his life and so we did. Four years later that inner-place of loss is full-full-full of gratitude for a simple soul who lived a simple life. The photos of that day at the lake served as a two-way-door, one way to a moment-gone-by and the other opened to this moment, teeming with appreciation.

I know without doubt that this ride is limited. Why wouldn’t I expect awe?

“It won’t be long before another day/ We gonna have a good time/ And no one’s gonna take that time away/ You can stay as long as you like./ So close your eyes. You can close your eyes, it’s alright/ I don’t know no love songs/ And I can’t sing the blues anymore/ But I can sing this song/ And you can sing this song when I’m gone.” James Taylor, Close Your Eyes

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SWEET POTATO

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Filed under: Awakening, Gratitude, KS Friday, Metaphor | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, awe, awesome, Close Your Eyes, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Gratitude, James Taylor, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, old soul, story, studio melange, sweet potato, the melange | 1 Comment »

Not Bad [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on October 14, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

In a fit of understatement, someone placed a yellow sticker on the railing overlooking the sweeping view of Bryce Canyon. It read, “Not bad”. The awe is visceral, “I feel it in the pit of my stomach,” Kerri said. Standing at the edge, as is often the case, words fall short. “Not bad” is as good a phrase of wonderment as any other.

For a moment Gay was overwhelmed. With tears in her eyes she said, “And I get to be here to see it.” There were moments in the past few years that she had every reason to believe that she would not be here.

I was struck by her acknowledgement. It is something that I hope to express every day for the rest of my life. Deep appreciation. “And I get to be here to see it.” Like most people, I let far too many days of this life slip by without realizing or recognizing the astonishing gift of being here to see it.

Every day is as awesome as a peek into Bryce Canyon. Not Bad.

read Kerri’s blogpost about NOT BAD

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Filed under: Gratitude, Language, Seeing | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, assume awe, awe, awesome, Bryce Canyon, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Gratitude, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, Not bad, seeing, story, studio melange, the melange, travels, understatement, wonder, wonderment | 1 Comment »

Give It Perspective [on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on July 20, 2022 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Awe” is one of those complex words that contains its opposite. Wonder and dread. Astonishment and fear. Respect for the power of nature. Reverence. It’s a full-spectrum word.

Awe is what you feel standing at the ocean shore, knowing the waves will rush in long after you are gone. Water pulling at your ankles. Toes in the sand. Staring into eternity.

Awe is a perspective-giving word. It makes us both tiny-in-the-universe and fortunate-beyond-words, all in the same moment.

Once, I stood on a mountaintop in the bitter cold of dawn. The sun broke over the horizon and washed over me with a wave of warmth. Life-giving. Literally. I stopped shivering when the sun touched my bones. Filled with awe, I started to laugh and cry. Beautiful, magnificent and painful.

We stood on the deck and watched the cloud tower above us. Threatening and astonishing. She showed me the photo. “The wire makes it,” she said holding the screen so I could see it, “It gives it perspective.”

Perspective. Correct regard for the truly awesome power of nature.

read Kerri’s blogpost about TOWERING CLOUD