I listened to a fascinating program on NPR featuring Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. He is the author of “Awe…The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life.” The feeling of awe is a supremely personal experience and often transcendent and profound. Awe is a moment of almost incomprehensible wonder. Some may experience it with nature, music, festivals, spiritual encounters, visual design, athletic performance, and even food and wine. Of course, my entire family brings me continual moments of AWE!

I am ALIVE and MARLA is ALIVE…and this is an amazingly AWESOME MOMENT!

I’ll share some of my own special awesome transformative experiences. My first experience of awe that I remember was as a small boy when my parents took me to a Redwood Forest in Northern California.

Being among Redwood trees is still an almost spiritual experience.

A hike surrounded by beautiful nature gives me a sense of awe which words cannot describe.

I have visited a number of places which have ignited my feeling of awe. This is Akaka Falls near Honomu, on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I am amazed by special flowers like this Black Bat Flower.

There is a captivating spirit which brings me a feeling of wonder at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.

Even after numerous visits I feel awe while visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

I can almost feel Marla’s feeling of awe at the incredible Alhambra Palace in Granada!

The Alhambra Palace combines amazing design with spiritual writing incorporated in the architecture for a truly awesome experience.

One of the buildings which gives me goosebumps of awe is Antoni Gaudi’s Casa Batllo’ in Barcelona. He began his work on the building in 1904. The organic and undulating forms are mesmerizing.

I was feeling a profound sense of awe during a visit to the Ming Tombs outside of Beijing. We were almost the only persons on an early morning trip.

Only awe can describe the visual wonder I experienced while exploring the Bayon Khmer temple at Angkor in Cambodia.

I love to visit ancient churches and find the Cathedral in Siena, Italy one of my favorites, uniquely beautiful and awesome.

Only amazement can describe Bangkok’s Wat Pho and the glistening reclining Buddha.

Spiritual festivals can bring a feeling of incomprehensible awe like this Shinbyu novitiation ceremony at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar.

Nothing can describe my sense of awe while experiencing sunset and this monkey at the Uluwatu Temple in Bali.

I felt awe witnessing Marla as the sun was setting on the Big Island in Hawaii.

I know the Girls were feeling awe while watching this colorful sunset.

This sensational sunset at Tubkaek beach in Krabi, Thailand, was a total spiritual experience of awe!

Food and wine can often lead to moments of unique awe. The sunset at the Restaurante Mirador Carmen San Miguel in Granada, Spain added to this feeling.

Even a bike ride can bring a strong feeling of awe! The steep route up the iconic Alpe d’Huez in France was a singular awesome experience for me. I have ridden it on 3 occasions without ever stopping for a break on the route to the summit.

My first musical experience of awe was listening to this aria from La Boheme as a small boy. I played my parents‘ records and was transported to a unique place. This is an amazing version!

I was in total awe watching Prince in concert. His singing, playing, and dancing took me to a special place! He invited us all to his after-hours concert at a small club in Denver. It was already close to midnight on a worknight so getting home after 3 AM was not possible! I still wish I would have gone!

I have always been in awe of the music of John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner! I was fortunate to see them both in small clubs in San Francisco and Denver. I even introduced our oldest daughter Lisa to McCoy Tyner in Denver!

I am not a huge Hip Hop fan, but I must say I was in awe of this 8-minute version of DJ Khaled’s song “God Did” with Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, JAY-Z, and John Legend at the end of the Grammy broadcast this week! (I can’t show the live video of the performance due to copyright issues.)

For more on the science of AWE watch this video.

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.