Be Astonished!
When we wake up and truly pay attention (Blog, February 29) —when we pay real, deep attention — we come to see the world in an altogether new way. We “see” what is deeper, more real, more alive. The world shimmers with light, vitality, and unity, all held in love.
Poets have long known this and expressed it in ways that open us to this wonder. Two examples:
O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists, that roll and rise!
Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag
And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag
To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this;
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart,—Lord, I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me,—let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.—Edna St. Vincent Millay: God’s World
Such love does the sky now pour,
that whenever I stand in a field,I have to wring out the light
When I gethome.
—Saint Francis of Assisi
I recall an experience I had once when, upon going outside at midday for a walk I was suddenly struck by a light, a brilliance, an inner aliveness that seemed to pervade the bushes and trees nearby, and even to reside in everything I saw. It was a though the leaves were the very source of light, rather than mere reflectors. They seemed to dance and shimmer from an aliveness that came from within. The entire world seemed aglow. And I was a participant in it. I was indeed astonished!
Though this experience lasted only a short while, I have since lived with the knowledge that what I saw then is always present, whether I notice it or now or not -- and I do get hints of it from time to time if I am paying deep attention.
What astonishing experiences have you undergone that have opened you up to a deeper reality? Perhaps gazing on your newborn child, the wonderment of a new relationship, or … ?
One of the barriers that keeps us blinded to the splendor of the world, is our practice of labeling what we see and, having labeled it, proceeding as though the label captures the essence. This is a useful practice for navigating our environment and our days -- if we stopped to truly see everything before us, we’d barely make it out of the house in the morning! But if we never stop and open to the wonder that is all around us, we miss the heart of what it is to be alive.
Sometimes it takes the actions of children to reawaken us to this wonde — the little girl reaching up to try to touch a butterfly, or a young boy delighting in making big splashes in a small puddle. My granddaughter wakened me to her wondering eyes once when (about age 3) she lay down in the grass among the fallen autumn leaves, gazing up at the leaves still falling, and making “snow” angels with her arms and legs in the leaves already fallen. She saw just as Edna St. Vincent Millay saw.
What habits or ways of making your way in the world have kept you from seeing with wonder and being astonished?
As you ponder these questions, may you find ways of letting your attentiveness lead you into an openness to astonishment. “Pay attention, Be astonished, …”
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