If awe is lightening that rips down from the sky, then perhaps a wonder is the rod that we hold to attract its electrifying bolt. Lighting does not strike every day—and that’s a good thing. But if we do want to experience its power and terrible beauty, we have to prepare for it. We have to leave our houses, first of all—those comfortable places that we’re so used to and safe in that we can walk down the hall half asleep in the middel of the night without stubbing so much as a toe. We have to get out of our comfort zones and break our hedonic adaptations.
Then, we have to acquire the lightening rod—the wonder rod…go out and actually seek a new tool. In our lives, the space for cultivating a sustained sense of wonder is often created through spiritual practice…prayer or mediation, daily walks or yoga, mindful cooking or weekly worship, even twenty minutes every day of reading something other than work memos and People magazine. Anything that has the effect of giving us “ears that hear and eyes that see;” of breaking up our monotonous, busy routines and helping us connect with something beyond our individual lives.
We create space that is outside of ordinary time, when we push ourselves to pay keen attention to the details, the beauty, the miraculous all around us. We keep that shell of disaffection and boredom from calcifying our spirits to such a degree that they cannot be penetrated. As the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqhCLqCWeGQ) says, we practice, “scrambling the self temporarily so the world can seep in.” We cannot know when the lightning bolt of awe will strike. But we can prepare ourselves to be electrified by its terrible, inspiring, shattering, fierce beauty when it does.
-Rev. Ashely Horan, guest minister, “Totally Awesome Dude!”
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