After a long stretch of cold and dreary winter days, spring has finally arrived in northwestern Pennsylvania, bringing with it a bounty of new life! Just the other day I was watching a family of mallard ducklings search for food among the aquatic vegetation in a nearby pond when, as occurs often this time of year, I was struck by how fantastically complex and yet perfectly arranged this young friend was. The duckling captured in this photograph took a keen interest in me too, staring back for several minutes, as if it was also pondering the richness of life that it only first encountered just days before. 

While it isn’t hard to find beauty in the natural world any time of the year, the joys of spring tend to usher in such a cacophony of organic richness. For me, this is the season of wonder – that feeling of amazement and admiration all wrapped into one, often caused by an unexpected surprise or something inexplicably beautiful. How is it possible, I muse, that a deep blanket of color and new life bursts on the scene so quickly in what, only weeks ago, looked like a barren landscape? I am amazed at the vastness of this new life. 

Having recently undergone some minor surgery and the recovery period that followed, I have been personally reminded of just how fragile and intricate life is. From the smallest insect pollinator to the multidimensional layers of a rainforest, the complex life support systems that have evolved on this planet over millions of years are nothing short of stunning. All it takes is one small kink in the multifaceted networks of an organism’s body and the whole system can be thrown off. And yet, for this little duckling, all indicators from the outside suggest that every system, process, and appendage is working in perfect fashion, seamlessly supporting life. When you stop to think about it, that’s pretty darn incredible. 

I often worry that the hectic and disconnected nature of our lives today is slowly robbing us of experiences of wonder. Of course, there are many ways to experience this phenomenon, although, I would argue, none quite as powerful as those encountered outdoors. I hope you have a few minutes to stop and wonder today. The life within you and that surrounds you is a spectacle to see.