TUESDAY—AWE AND WONDER AND NATURE

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

John Milton (1608-1674)

It’s almost impossible to talk about reverence without mentioning awe and wonder.

PROJECT 1: TO BRING A CONSCIOUSNESS OF AWE, WONDER AND REVERENCE IN NATURE

Go out today and find some aspect of nature to bring that consciousness to you—plan a weekend trip to immerse yourself in it. If that is impossible, find some spectacular photos and lose yourself in them. Put those photos up on walls around you so you can be aware of, and feel, the majesty of nature with awe, wonder and reverence.

On a trip to Nashville’s Opryland to speak, I was in one of many long corridors on the way to my room. For those of you who have not been to this famous, amazing hotel and conference center in Nashville, it is enormous! It covers 5 acres and you have to walk miles (it seems) to reach to rooms and it is very easy to find yourself lost in all those corridors.

I was irritated and lost, and a family emerged from another corridor. They were obviously lost as well! The father was angrily pushing a luggage cart that was very overloaded and the mother was frustrated, looking at a map trying to work out where they were. They had two small children aged about four and six who were having the best time! They were dancing and jumping with excitement even though they were in a windowless corridor!

This to me was a blinding-flash-of-the-obvious moment. Suddenly I saw awe and wonder contrasted directly against how we have come to live our lives as adults. The adults were frustrated, angry and upset. The children were finding the joy in the situation—they were full of awe, wonder, laughter and made the experience fun by playing.

As adults, we are so engrossed with being on a mission (like finding the room), doing stuff, and having stuff, that we forget to look around and feel awe and wonder for where we are! It’s easy to be filled with awe when we look at a magnificent view, as I am doing now, experiencing the amazing beauty of nature and the incredible silence of our little farmhouse in Vermont.

Consider the ocean and its unfathomable power, or look at the night sky and all its vastness. Think about the Grand Canyon, or being in ancient forests, rain forests, beside rivers and isolated streams. Each of these can fill us with awe, wonder, reverence and feed our souls. There is something in the silence, vastness and wisdom of nature that makes us become conscious of reverence.

Go out today and become conscious of the amazing power of the natural world surrounding you.

PROJECT 2. EVERYDAY REVERENCE

Find a way to look at everyday life situations with awe and wonder—like those children in the halls of Opryland did! We all did just that as children, so we all have the capacity to do it—just as we have the innate capacity for joy. It sits patiently inside us waiting for the day, like today, when we will awaken to it.

No matter what happens today—find a reason to be in awe and wonder.

Look at your colleagues and family with a sense of awe for the incredible spiritual beings they are. They may be covered with a pretty ordinary personality, but they are really “astonishing beings of light!”

Be amazed at the technology of your car—that it can take you places and you never need to think about it—unless it doesn’t work!

Find yourself in awe of how the universe or God or Source arranges everything so perfectly—no matter how messy it looks to us!

I am always fascinated and in awe of people who can create machinery, or make art or carve wood into glorious shapes. I’m also fascinated and awed by people who manage very difficult lives and still smile, or by people with severe handicaps who are so grateful for what they have. I stand in awe of doctors and healers who can work magic, and on and on. I look at everyone with curiosity, fascination and wonder—how can they do what they do?

Everyone—no matter who they are or what they do—has something amazing to give to life—and to us. We just need to be curious and look beyond ourselves to see it.

I see the world as an alive, swirling mass of awesome, amazing, wonderful, mysterious stuff just waiting for me to learn about it, and it’s very exciting!

Remember the children in that corridor—your mission today is to experience everything with a sense of awe and wonder. You will be surprised at how much gratitude and joy you feel at the end of the day.

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