Awe…wonder…connection. Those moments of inspiration where we know we are in tune with the earth, with the beauty, majesty, with our grand and minute relationship with this planet.
Our modern mindset seems to have it backwards. We don’t have to work 11 months of the year to afford to enjoy 1 month of getting in our awe and wonder time. As if it only exists if we can afford to go somewhere exotic. What if part of our everyday spiritual practice was having one majestic, tiny, beautiful moment with nature?
If only we weren’t so tempted to catch more fish so that we can use better nets, then buy more boats and be well off enough to really enjoy life…when enjoying life is what we’re invited to do from the outset. Catching enough fish for the day is all that’s needed. Wow, just even saying that sentence seems so antiquated, doesn’t it? Enough for today, not worry about tomorrow, the bills, the savings account. It’s not as if our lives are much different. No work, no money, no stockpiles are needed to connect with what ultimately matters…
Having love in our life to appreciate and connect with the people we care about, doing things that bring meaning to our living, and recognizing and caring for the planet that gives us everything.
The spiritual life is an invitation to those moments.
Do you ever notice what language we use when we glimpse those amazing awe-inspiring vistas? I’ve used a few of them already. Awesome. Wonder. Inspired. We could use the word hallelujah. In Hebrew, it means Praise. The word is beautiful, musical – so often a word that we think of set to music that should play on our soundtrack when we have a eureka moment. Maybe the word AMEN would serve well….beingan affirmation; like saying “Right on!” or “Yes, that’s right”.
But maybe more than any other, there’s a word that appears every once in a while that we overlook. The simple, primal “O”. This shortest of words turns out to be one of the most amazing….O, as Brian McLaren writes…
erupts from within us almost involuntarily and uncontrollably, expressing our reaction to almost any deep or powerful emotion.
It may be awe in the presence of beauty… “O, look at that!”
It may be relief in the presence of comfort: “O! I’m so glad you’re here”
It may be gratitude in the presence of generosity: “O, What a kind gift!”
It may be surprise: “O! I didn’t realize you were standing there!”
It may be agony that reaches out for empathy: “O! My head is pounding or O! My heart is breaking”
Could it be that this word, embodied by a circle – has the power that circles do – to unite us – to unite the “cultured”, socialized, mind-centric intellectual and analytical left-brained ways to think ourselves to death, uniting that with our capacity to feel – really feel, to express and create art – temples, cantatas, poetry, icons, gardens. Might this little letter remind us of our connection and need for both and all of these human traits…and to make them one. To join them in the no-beginning-no-ending circle of human experience?
O brings us to a sense of whole living. Beyond the description, beyond the feeling – toward the wonder, the beyond-ness, the more-ness that lies within us….
This is a word of jubilation and celebration.
It’s the word that appears in so many prayers and songs of praise to the land, to the glory of life, to the expression of the human spirit. It’s the word that begins the ancient psalm, and its paraphrase that we heard as wisdom today. It’s marks, from the very first syllable that this is about emotion, about praise, about tuning us in, and connecting us again with what’s important.
O come and climb up to the top of the rock; Stand on top and stretch your arms out to the sky. Return to the land and sea, return to the marvels of mountain and valley.
When was the last time we held our arms out to the sky? When was the last time we felt the strength of the rock rise through our feet? When was the last time we proclaimed “O” and bowed our head at the wonder of it all.
It is beyond one religion, it is beyond one tradition. It is universal. Our connection to nature, the truth that “astonishment resides in every subtle link of life.” This is our primary and first testament. This is our first and best wisdom. From it we read the tiny and the grand lessons for living. In our relationship to it, we learn gratitude, we learn about dying, we learn about living.
Let’s begin this spring journey with reconnecting. Could we take a moment this week…could we take seven moments this week…to stand in awe of something in the natural world? Could we feel the rock beneath our feet, the air on our face, the water between our toes or the feel of lichens on trees, the buzz of returning insects to our gardens.
Let’s open our living and our daily experience to our first and greatest inspiration. May we find an inner jubilation that’s worthy of an “O” in every sentence.
-Chris New
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