Words That Stayed With Me: Matt Moberg and the Language of Awe

Sometimes a piece of writing arrives at exactly the right moment.

Not because it solves anything. Not because it offers certainty. But because it reminds you that other people are standing in the same bewildering, beautiful experience of being alive.

Recently I came across a long-form reflective prose poem by artist and writer Matt Moberg, and I found myself stopping repeatedly while reading it.

The piece moves between humor and heartbreak in a way that mirrors actual life: trash bags and moonlight, group chats and grief, gas station snacks and sacred wonder.

And underneath all of it is a question many of us quietly carry:

How do we stay open to awe in a world that constantly tries to numb us?

One segment especially stayed with me:

“We send photos of the sky
to people we love
with captions like,
‘LOOK,’
as if beauty is an emergency
and we are all volunteer firefighters.”

Because isn’t that exactly what we do?

We forward sunsets.
We point out strange clouds.
We text each other photos of flowers, moonrises, birds, glowing skies, tiny moments of beauty that feel too important to keep to ourselves.

As if somewhere deep down we know:
wonder matters.

Before systems and certainty and performance, there was simply the human experience of standing beneath the sky and feeling overwhelmed by existence itself.

That kind of awe still finds us.
In gardens.
In music.
In art.
In laughter around a kitchen table.
In the moon showing up again without asking for recognition.

Moberg’s writing reminds me that the goal is not to become less tender in order to survive the world.

The goal is to remain awake to it.

To continue noticing the little things.
To continue looking for meaning and joy.

As he writes:

“Look.
Look again.
Look until looking
becomes love.”

Just staying open to beauty long enough to let it change us. ✨

Matt Moberg is a Minneapolis-based artist, speaker, and writer whose reflective prose and visual artwork explore humanity, spirituality, creativity, and wonder. The excerpts shared here are from a longer reflective prose piece by Matt Moberg that has been widely shared online for its blend of humor, tenderness, and existential awe. You can find him on Facebook.