Can I start with dreams of spring to inspire days of awe? Cherry blossom tea is brings reflection.
I have had to take off my rose-coloured glasses. I am languishing. Decisions are being made that will affect me and I can’t do anything about it. I can put one foot in front of the other and deal with the consequences of other’s decisions. And I need a purpose injection.
Then this poem came through my inbox, I paused:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day — blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time,
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
This poem reminds me that I have the ability to infuse grace into my world. I am languishing because I am just going through the motions without a lot of emotion or interest. I can keep busy and that busyness is devoid of meaning. My busy life has kept me awe-deficient.
I am here to change that. I am reminding myself that I choose how I show up in the world and I want to experience what Einstein called the most beautiful thing by practicing awe.
The benefit for me to practice awe, as science suggests, is to increase my life satisfaction, have a sense of time slowing down or stopping, and feeling interconnected with others. I want that, especially today.
Today, I am practicing awe. Not the trivial awe of “Wow, I found ten bucks in my pocket!” but the real awe that is “ an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful…”
Today, my awe practice is an easy way to start. I want to infuse awe into my day and appointments today kept me languishing. Instead of waiting to start tomorrow, I set aside five minutes after breakfast to watch a awe-inspiring video. The video when given all my attention on full screen mode gives a sense of vastness in the world and puts into perspective my small place in it. It expands my sense of wonder.
Give it a try:
Taking time out of my routine to experience awe lifts me out of the usual day-to-day concerns and connects me to something larger.