Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

WORD FOR THE DAY

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.

-MARY OLIVER-

Today I am grateful for early summer mornings and the farmers and others who helped make toast, peanut butter and jelly possible for my breakfast. I also appreciate Mary Oliver’s words as a gentle reminder to notice what is in front of me.

I applied this last evening, while enjoying a summer concert in our community. I was watching a plane make its way across the sky, marveling at modern technology and the idea of flight.

Air travel is a very new development in the history of humanity. I am alive in this transportation age and able to benefit from it. Waking up at home, going to the airport, being a passenger on a jet, and going to bed that night hundreds or thousands of miles from where I started the day. Wow!

Shortly after observing the plane, a train rolled into view and crossed on this railroad bridge a few hundreds yards from the pavilion where the concert was taking place. I pondered the power of the engine, able to pull dozens and dozens of cars. I considered the importance of the railroad in early American history. It is still a key transportation mode for passengers and cargo today. Wow!

Then I turned to take in the setting sun and finished out the transportation trifecta with the highway bridge that crosses the mighty Mississippi River and takes 30,000 cars a day from here to there and back.

Read more about it in this post on Habitual Gratitude from nine years ago. Four lanes, a nice pedestrian/bike portion and an engineering marvel to boot. I cross this structure twice a day when commuting for work. Often unnoticed, I appreciated the bridge and the importance it serves to my community and the local area as I took in the view.

Wow! Mary Oliver sure knew what she was writing about.