Every night before bedtime, I have to take the dog for a walk so he can do his final business for the day. The other night, just before taking him out for his walk, there was a monstrous spider on my ceiling. Maybe he was a baby tarantula, which is common in my neighborhood.

I don’t know what he was, but he was big, and my wife wasn’t too pleased that he decided to take up residence with us. So, not being the spider-smashing type, I found a jar. I coaxed him into it and let him go outside to continue his merry spider life.

Armed with a flashlight, I studied him as he scurried away, once again free. I was in awe at how fast you could move with those eight legs! What an incredible creature. He seemed happy with my decision to merely relocate rather than terminate him.

My neighborhood is dark and without street lights. You can always tell when someone new has moved into the neighborhood. They’ll turn the porch light on for a few weeks before they realize nobody else has one on. I looked up at the sky and saw the Milky Way and millions of stars above.

I thought of the power that created the amazing spider and also the wonderful canopy of stars above my head. And I was quite literally awestruck.

There are so many wondrous things surrounding us every day that we take for granted, and that night taught me to take a moment and appreciate all those things.

The next day, I was driving to a job down Highway 179 and caught a glimpse of Courthouse Rock just at sunset. It was another one of those awe-inspiring moments like the night before.

I invite you to take a moment every day to look around and appreciate some of the things we take for granted. No, not just appreciate, but be awe-inspired by some of the simple yet amazing things around us that we all but forget about.