The landscape of the High Sierra has rearranged the scale of my life more times than I can count. It been a throughline throughout my life, a place I’ve returned to again and again, across decisions and different versions of myself. I think there’s a kind of awe that lives in the places we return to—quiet, familiar, and still able to catch us off guard.

Sometimes if we're lucky, we get to experience awe—the feeling so profound it rearranges the scale of things—the parts of life that get too loud are pulled back into proportion.

This episode looks at the quiet vulnerability in trying to share awe—and the human need to have our inner experiences seen by the people we care about. Awe can shift perspective. It can connect us to something larger. But what gets unlocked when someone else looks out at the same view, turns to you, and—without a word—you know they see it too?

This is the companion to our episode with Dr. Kim Nolan about the science and soul of awe—what it is, why it matters, and how it changes us—and how it can be used as a tool to bolster health, manage stress, and improve relationships.

Maybe we don’t share things just to share them. Maybe it’s something else entirely we’re hoping they’ll see.

I don’t think awe asks much of us.
Perhaps just that we occasionally notice.

—Molly