AWE
Where do you find awe? This may be one of the single most important things “to do” each day: focus on the things that bring you awe.
When I was finishing up my Reiki I class, my Reiki Master Teacher gave me an assignment (that I never fail to give to my students); keep a journal of miracles. This journal can be anything from “someone felt something when I was practicing reiki!” to “I saw an eagle on my drive home.” In other words, it didn’t have to be reiki-specific, it only had to invoke a feeling of awe.
The great thing about noticing awe-inspiring things is that your senses become conduits for noticing more and more awe-inspiring things. If I were to make a complete list of every awesome thing I journaled about over the last year and a half, it would become as boring as reading the dictionary and you would soon be nodding off to sleep. Not that the list is boring, by any means, but that it’s so long that it would start to feel redundant.
Think about it this way; What are the things that make you say “Whoa!” or give you goosebumps, for example? I always take delight in seeing a hawk or eagle resting on a lamp post along Highway 36. There’s almost always one there, but I feel like I’m the only one paying attention. Actually, I’ve become quite a magnet for wildlife. I’ve had a grasshopper sit on my lap for several minutes at a baseball game. A chipmunk came up and sniffed my bare toe. Just today a butterfly flew right over my shoulder to land on a flower in front of me. I feel a bit like a Disney Princess. I wish they would help me with chores.
Another experience I love is listening to music and the notes hit something deep within. Last Spring my husband and I went to a couple different concerts. Bruce Springsteen, age 73 when we last saw him, has a multitude of great songs and the energy at his concerts is intense. There isn’t much sitting down for anyone during the 3+ hour shows, but perhaps one of the most awesome things (besides his septuagenarian abs and pecs…I mean, seriously) is when he listens as the crowds sing his songs back to him. We are all singing, swaying, and being overcome by the moment and the music. Similar, but totally different, was an SPCO concert we attended featuring Abel Selaocoe. He writes songs, plays cello and drum, and gets the audience to participate in his musical transmutation to worlds unknown. He made sounds so low with his voice I thought he had a digeridoo, but it was all him and he was taking us with him.
Awesome things surround us everyday. The awful wildfires have created so many smoke particles that sunsets are often bright red. Sunsets have always been awesome, but the intensity lately is enough to make one gasp out loud. Witnessing someone do a completely selfless act to benefit another can bring an awe-inspired “whoa” and perhaps a tear to our eyes. The other day, one of my brother’s childhood friends posted a picture of him and my mom. She had surprised him at his place of business, and he publicly shared how special she is to him. His sentiments brought tears of awe to my eyes. It’s a wonderful thing when someone holds another in high regard. It’s awe-inspiring when they share those sentiments out loud.
It’s no secret that people experience awe at the Grand Canyon or Great Pyramids. Similarly, watching the Northern Lights or seeing the Milky Way can evoke the same wonder and thrill. By all means, immerse yourself in these experiences, but also take the moment to see the rainbows in the bubbles made by the dish soap in your sink. Awe is all around us and it does a magical thing: it helps us to put ourselves into perspective. Surely, it takes us out of the center of our own universe and makes us a small part of something much grander, much more well-designed than anything our brains can come up with -even when they take a single topic and spin it every which way.
We are all One. My energy is made up of the same stuff as your energy, the trees’ energy, the sun and stars’ energies. All the eye can see is made up of the same stuff. When we take time to truly contemplate the interconnectedness of everything, we will see that we, too, are awesome! But! Our awesomeness is part of a collective and interconnected awesomeness, so we need to look around. We need experience life fully. We need to appreciate the awesomeness of a butterfly resting on a bloom; it’s wings moving ever so slightly in rhythm with our own breath. The wonder of it all may bring us into the bliss, the peace that we seek.
Today, and everyday after, ask yourself, “Where do I find awe?”
