Stand in Awe

 

Natural Wonder

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

St. Augustine

          The Aurora Borealis must be spectacular this year. So many wonderful photographs have come out by way of social media. This one is by Tobias Bjorkli. I don’t have a bucket list, but I would truly like to see the Northern Lights in this lifetime. Even looking at the photographs fills me with wonder.

          Albert Einstein said that when we lose our sense of wonder, we may as well be dead—our eyes are closed. This is true but wonder doesn’t just involve our eyes; it requires that we be open to wonder in the first place. I can’t tell you how many years of my life I spent so locked up inside myself that I hardly registered my surroundings. Especially during the years when I had young children, there was no time for wonder. It felt challenging to simply get through the day. As a retired person, I specialize in wonder. It’s an interesting experiment to watch the difference between parents and grandparents with a new baby—the parents are pale and exhausted and asking questions like, “Did you put enough diapers in the bag, dear? Did you test to see how hot the bottle is?” while the grandparents are lost in rapture at this miracle of new life. Parents are frazzled, grandparents are ready to play. One of the best perks of being older is that you have time to indulge in awe.

          Here’s another amazement to ponder—whatever is “out there” is also inside of you. The flora and fauna, the constellations, the heights and the depths, the steaming hot factories inside your cells, the bridges of sinew, the busy highways of nerve signals and blood cells speeding along their channels to the steady beat of the heart—all are inside you. As above, so below; as without, so within. We too are a wonder.

          The fact that most of our body parts work well every minute of every day for all the years of our lives is a pure miracle. We should look in the mirror everyday and say to ourselves, “You are awesome! You fill me with wonder!” Just like the mountains and the oceans, we are part of creation’s miraculous story. Give yourself a little “borealis” of color today. You are a natural wonder.

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane