Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to wake up in Paris. Or London. And be so used to it I don't even notice it anymore. Like hey- I'm walking past the Eiffel Tower- who cares- sort of nonchalance that grows from too much familiarity.

It's so easy to take our surroundings for granted. You know, you wake up, you walk around, you don't really notice what is going on around you. I wonder if that is just a condition of being human. We become used to routine and regularity. It's part of our strength and also part of weakness.

Every morning when I wake up I make myself notice the sunrise. The way the light hits the clouds. Or the way the mountains are silhouetted behind the new day sun. The orange meeting the blue.

And every night when dusk comes I make myself go out and watch the stars appear. Watch the sky become a blanket with holes. Each tiny pin-prick becoming another world. It helps keep me centered.

It helps to remind me that there are other things more important than the work that was left unfinished, the book that was left unread, the mess in the kitchen sink.

We just have to remember to notice them.