We were driving back to Phoenix from LA last week and stopped at a rest stop for gas, food, and stretching legs.
It was late afternoon; the moon was rising in the still-sunlit sky over shadow-covered desert mountains.
The phase of the moon and its proximity to the mountains caught my attention—it looked like the setting sun was causing both the shadows on the mountains and the shadow in the moon.
I took a short walk to get a better vantage point (the gas station did not enhance the shot) and snapped a picture.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have noticed that juxtaposition.
Activities we engage in change how we see the world around us.
I see Joshua Tree National Park differently than I did before I started rock climbing.
I saw Knotts Berry Farm differently last week than I did before I started parkour.
I see pictures to take and stories to tell and writing prompts in all sorts of otherwise unnoticed things around me.
Seeing normal things differently is fun. Noticing the seeing is fascinating.
Has this happened to you? Where you learned something or participated in something and it slightly but noticeably shifted what you saw?