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 April 22, 2023

When you think of something awe-inspiring, what comes to mind? Researchers at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center believe these moments of breathtaking, jaw-dropping, goosebump-inducing wonder actually help us live longer and happier lives. According to co-founder and director Dr. Dacher Keltner, experiencing, say, a gorgeous sunset or a meaningful piece of art ignites the imagination and helps us contemplate things beyond our own existence. Interestingly enough, he defines awe as something separate from the mere appreciation of beauty. "Do you feel quiet, do you feel humble?" he told CNN. "All of our studies show that your sense of self recedes to the background of consciousness as you're absorbing this perceptual experience. The 'small self' is probably one of the defining elements of awe." What a lovely description. In the spirit of Earth Day, what's the most awe-inspiring moment in nature you've ever experienced? 

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Our favorites this week

Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week

What goes around ...
Don't you love to see good people catching a break? Geraldine Gimblet (center) of Lakeland, Florida, spent her life savings to pay for her daughter's breast cancer fight. It was a sacrifice well worth it: Earlier this year, her daughter successfully completed her treatment. Just days later, Gimblet claimed another victory when her $10 gas station lottery ticket revealed she had won a prize of $2 million. Gimblet's daughter, who did not share her name, told the Florida Lottery it was meant to be for her mom. “The day before my mom bought this ticket, I rang the bell and walked out of the hospital after completing my last treatment for breast cancer,” she said. “My mom had taken out her life savings to take care of me when I was sick. I’m just so happy for her!”

Designing for fun
I'm a little obsessed with this amazing CNN profile of theme park designer Taylor Jeffs. He is the co-owner, president and chief creative officer of Legacy Entertainment, an entertainment and production design company that's worked on everything from international theme parks to aquariums. Jeffs began his career as a teenager in Disneyland and was inspired by how much joy the park's environment brought visitors. Now, he's designed attractions all over the world. Jeffs says one of the first things a team does when beginning such work is a "blue sky" brainstorm. "We just go nuts – attraction ideas, crazy restaurant concepts, social media moments, landscape possibilities, all of it,” he says. Some of these wild ideas actually become entire attractions, like the immersive “Pacific Rim: Shatterdome Strike” ride at Trans Studio Cibubur in Indonesia. It begins like a normal dark ride, with music and blacklights, but then the ride "breaks down" and visitors continue on foot. Jeffs says another key to a great theme park is to make sure there's enough fun for everyone, including small children and those who may not want to, well, brave a dark ride on foot. 

Strike a pose
British Vogue has revealed five portraits featuring disabled activists, models and creatives for a series of May 2023 covers, and they are s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g. Above is Aaron Rose Philip, a Black transgender modeling icon who made fashion history when she became the first physically disabled model to be represented by a major agency in 2018. Also featured are Justina Miles, a deaf American Sign Language interpreter; actress and multiple sclerosis activist Selma Blair; teacher, writer, CEO and consulting editor Sinead Burke; and Ellie Goldstein, a British model with Down syndrome. "Making this issue was a necessary and overdue education for all – and taught us many lessons we will carry forward into the future," editor in chief Edward Enninful wrote in an editor's note. 

Note: Is describing someone as a "disabled activist" OK? Language and preferences are always changing! Here's a disability style guide from the National Center for Disability and Journalism that explains some of the current conventions for talking about people with disabilities. 

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A bright idea

Every year, the textile industry uses 1.3 trillion gallons of water to dye garments. Unfortunately, most of this water, loaded with toxic substances, ends up back in rivers and streams. However, researchers at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, have created a material that they say could help sop up this problem -- literally. This new nanomaterial consists of tiny sand-like grains, only visible to the naked eye in clusters, which collect pollutants on their surfaces and in their pores. Scientists took inspiration from the glue-like substance that mussels use to stick themselves to rocks. If such a solution can be put into play on a large scale, there's hope that different compounds can be produced to clean up even more water-ruining pollutants. 

You gotta see this

Look closely at the center of this April 10 satellite image from Palmdale, California, and you'll see long streaks of purple, yellow and orange. It's a super bloom! An unusually rainy season on the hillsides of California resulted in a bloom of wildflowers so vivid, it can be seen from space. Those orange patches are famous California poppies, which attract swarms of tourists to the area when they arrive in the spring. 

And, of course, they look even prettier from the ground. 

Heroes among us

There's a career change, and then there's whatever CNN Hero Mike Goldberg managed to pull off. After spending his early career in finance, Goldberg realized he was unfulfilled. “I was just chasing money,” he said. He was able to leave his line of work and pursue his passion for underwater diving, which took him to several tropical locales around the world before his family settled in Islamorada in the Florida Keys. Today, he’s on a mission to help bring the area’s coral reefs back to life through his nonprofit, I.CARE. The organization offers special coral restoration dives for local and out-of-town participants. They spend the day learning about the importance of coral reefs and how to help rebuild them, then they go on dives to transplant coral grown in a local nursery. Goldberg says the organization has transplanted more than 10,000 corals and educated more than 2,000 people.

Hear, hear!

We are --

one life passing through the prism

of all others, gathering color and song,

cempazuchil and drum

to leave a rhythm scattered on the wind,

dust tinting the tips of fingers

as we slip into our new light. 

- from Zacuanpapalotls*, by poet Brenda Cárdenas

*Cempazuchil is another name for the Mexican marigold, a bright orange flower. Also called the flower of the dead, it has a lot of significance in Mexican culture.

Zacuanpapalotl is an ancient Aztec word related to the symbolism of a butterfly. 

Rec of the week

Brought to you by CNN Underscored

Shameless animal video

There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.

OK, now I'm just thinking about butterflies. This graceful swarm of monarchs may not be cute, exactly, but let's call it ... awe-inspiring. Happy Earth Day, fellow Earthlings! (Click here to view) 

Made with love by CNN's 5 Things team. 

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