Around here, my kids and I seem to be constantly creating and designing things. Sometimes I wish I had a picture of everything my kids have ever made. The topic of design comes up all the time, like while they're playing with Legos or Zoobs and creating things (like the creepy zoob man in the picture). They we're impressed with how well they could make movable joints in the man they made; it naturally lead to us talking about how the human skeleton is designed (not to mention tendons, ligaments, and muscle). We've been watching Wild Africa lately on Netflix, so again, we end up to discussing design in nature and animals. Sometimes I kick myself for not having them in music lessons or sports (yet), then one day, it occurred to me that I've nurtured this respect and love of design so much, that maybe, it makes up for any lack of encouragement to push them into other areas. I don't know what my kids will grow up to be, but I'm glad to have helped them gain the admiration they have for the form and function of all things, whether it be in building, engineering, or nature. We all take so much for granted, the fact that birds fly, food grows from the ground, or even all our means of transportation (whether that be our legs, a bike, or a car). Our world is incredible! If you get bored sometime, check out my Pinterest board labeled: Awestruck. Occasionally, I look at those pics and my brain and heart stop. It's hard, if not impossible, to take it all in. I don't know whether it's my background of working with my hands or just the way my brain works, but I can't help but to try to process how and why things are made the way they are. Where does a creature's instincts come from? How is that tucked away into it's DNA just to show itself at the right place and time? I'm always analyzing thing's structure, function, patterns, or aesthetics. (Though, no matter how intelligent one might be, our understanding can never wrap itself around the complexities of our world and most efforts to try are feeble.) Feel free to hate me for saying this: but if it takes hundreds, thousands, or millions of years for a creature (or any other form of life) to develop a trait that it requires for survival, how is it that any living thing is still here? Sorry for spilling some of my thoughts on you today and, of course, as I was trying to type them out just now, I've had no less than six interruptions.........so I'm sorry if I'm being a bit incoherent, or am being too vague, or even too personal.................Anyways, here's to taking less for granted. Design is around us all the time. Do yourself a favor and take a moment, sometime, to take it in.