Diana says she finds at least three
on her way to the mailbox each day.
“Even a spider can knock me out,” she says.

As a priest, she may be more open to them
than most of us are, but awe is a muscle,
she says. It gets stronger with exercise.

So this morning, after turning on a faucet,
I pause to watch clear water flowing from deep
underground into my glistening glass

and think…maybe this? Then, when I hear
Mieke singing in another room, I wonder—
vibrations moving through air

can make you smile, laugh or even cry.
Maybe not as miraculous as a spider,
but later as I sit eating beautiful blueberries

and yoghurt, a globe of the world
on a table nearby reminds me of the day
long ago when 7-year-old Gretchen came home

from school and explained why penguins
walking around on the South Pole,
(upside down from her point of view),

don’t fall off into space. The brain of a child
understanding the impossible might be
right up there with spiders.

And when you think about it, isn’t memory
amazing? After breakfast I keep flexing
my awe muscle and before long I meet

so many miracles that I wonder how
Diana can do anything other than
be knocked out by spiders all day.