The Everyday Human

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 8

What do we stand to lose still—

those things that once taken, cannot be put back or made right again?

We stand on the precipice of losing so much

and adding to the pile of bones.

• Reflection title: How Much More Can We Stand To Lose?
• Creative inspiration:  Cormac McCarthy, The Road
• Reflection question: What am I doing on a daily basis to cultivate and preserve the wonder in me and in the world?
  
  

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 7

So long as man worships money and power (and when has he not?), I'm afraid we will only move further and further into this ersatz life. But that is a bit defeatist of me, isn’t it? There wasn’t a cure nearly a century ago, and there isn’t one today. But if you look hard enough, you can find others who refuse to enter into that false life, too. You can find those who are fighting for the future, for us, and for nature. You can find those who embody those wholesome emotions of wonder and humility. Those who stop to watch the stars and help others without looking for a reward in return. 

Today, I, like Carson in 1952, am convinced that there has never been a greater need for the reporter of the natural world. And they are out there. You just have to find them, join with them, and be one of them.

• Reflection title: Beware: Ersatz Life Ahead
• Creative inspiration:  Rachel Carson, Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson
• Reflection question: When have I fallen into the trap of the ersatz life? Am I practicing the wholesome emotions of wonder and humility to avoid falling into it again? Can I be a reporter of the natural world?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 6

With the walking—the movement—your body slowly awakens, shaking off the rust of stagnancy. The tunnel vision you experienced moments before opens with the sky, broadening your perspective, sharpening your ideas, revitalizing your thinking. Oh, and very important, do this without a screen. Leave your phone home, or at the very least, leave it in your pocket or bag. If you wear a smartwatch, take it off. Why step outside into the wide and beautiful world to narrow your mind with social media or news or the constant drain of notifications?

You can lose yourself in the time spent moving, forgetting the stress and the problems that you felt so mired in before stepping out. You’ll see them anew and think, What was I so worried about? How did I not see past that? And then make it a habit. Build the time to walk and move into your schedule like making your morning coffee and brushing your teeth. Don’t wait until it’s too late like I did today. You’ll be better for it.

Now, I’m off to take a walk.

• Reflection title: Take a Long Walk
• Creative inspiration:  Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking
• Reflection question: When was the last time I lost myself on a walk? Do I have movement scheduled into my work and daily routines?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 5

When you’ve built a life you enjoy and have fallen in love with your routine, it’s good to stick to it. But too much of anything—even good things—can wear on you. It can become a sort of anaesthesia and numb you to life. That’s where looking at the world in unfamiliar ways comes into play. And it doesn’t have to mean looking at all new things, either. You don’t have to travel to new places and speak to new people (although this is wonderful, too). It just means adopting a new perspective, figuratively or literally—getting down on the ground to look at the small creatures and plants, looking away from your phone on a walk and up at the sky instead to see the clouds moving and the birds traveling to their next mysterious destination, or imagining what life might be like for the stranger you met at the store the other day or the person driving in the car next to you. It means intentionally viewing your moment to moment and day to day with fresh eyes and in a new light.

See that ant marching through your driveway? Take a walk with it and see where it goes. At the bookshop again? Why not bypass your favorite section (fantasy, duh) and head to historical fiction for a change? Watch the dragonfly hunt with its lethal, near-perfect efficiency and consider how it began its life submerged in a nearby creek or pond, only to crawl out, molt its skin, and take to the sky.

There are endless ways to view the familiar with unfamiliarity. And it’s not even difficult. Just get up, get outside, slow down, let your mind wander, and let it happen.

• Reflection title: Mind Wanderer’s Lane
• Creative inspiration:  Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
• Reflection question: What is familiar in my life that I can apply an unfamiliar lens to? When did I last break up the routine? Is it time to change things up a bit?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 4

It is a wasteland and the hollow wind and the bones and corpses of what once was chills you to your core. You turn to leave, but before you go, you see something pierce through the seemingly eternal monochrome of these deadlands. A bit of green, blue, yellow, pink, purple—poking through the wasted soil. The rainbow-colored sprout of the seed of an idea, waiting for the light of inspiration and the nourishment of collaboration, ready to blossom into a poem, a song, a story, a painting, a sculpture, or an afternoon of play with one who still carries the fire.

It’s never too late to come back from the wastes. You just have to look beyond what’s in front of you, shut out the noise of those who would hold you back . . . and imagine.

• Reflection title: Look for the Seed
• Creative inspiration:  Youth Lagoon, "17"
• Reflection question: When did I last imagine? What will I dream up next?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 3

It’s in the dark shadows of the universe—the unknown worlds that revolve around the stars we see at night, the wonder that comes with watching a bagworm stick its head out of its cocoon and work its way down the branch of a cypress tree, or the moment of self discovery while walking alone on a quiet path in the park before the world wakes. It’s these places and times that questions arise—questions about anything, like what sort of life might have evolved all those lightyears away, and are they looking at our sun as their star, wondering the same? Why does the bagworm prefer pines to deciduous trees? And what am I really doing here, on this planet, in this moment? Who was I yesterday? Who am I today? Who will I be tomorrow?

There may or may not be answers to these questions. We don’t need answers to these questions. In fact, it’s okay to never know, and more than that—it’s good to never know.

As humans, we aren’t meant to know it all. But we are meant to wonder at the mystery of it all. That’s what we’re good at. That is our human superpower. 

• Reflection title: A Human Superpower
• Creative inspiration:  Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions
• Reflection question: What mystery have I found and embraced recently? Am I being too quick in looking for answers or taking a shortcut around the process?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 2

If you look at my social media feed, you’ll come across close-up shots or videos of butterflies and bees and snowberry clearwings (when they stay still long enough for me to get a shot). And for every 15-second video of those wonderful creatures, there are hours of my life spent standing among the flowers that I am fortunate and grateful to grow in my yard, just watching them flutter about from flower to flower and these beautiful and strange little creatures never are questioning their identity, never are unsure of their purpose, and never are wanting more than the short lives they’ve been granted.

These moments, taken out of a busy day of worry and work, are ones that fill me with wonder and awe. There is so much to be learned from these little gentle beings we share the planet with, if we only slow down, stop for a while, and listen to the hum of their voices.

• Reflection title: Stop and Smell the Roses
• Creative inspiration:  Mary Oliver, "Hum"
• Reflection question: Am I slowing down to find awe in the little living things of this world? What can I learn from them? What have I learned from them?

August: On Wonder and Awe

August 1

July, the month of On Family is over at the Everyday Human. Family—what a beautiful and complicated thing it can be.  

This month, the month of August (my wife’s birthday month and mine!) will have us exploring one of my favorite topics—On Wonder and Awe. A key component of what makes being human worthwhile, interesting, and sets us apart from so many other creatures. 

This month, we’ll have reflections on wonder, awe, pleasure, laughter, and everything that makes life delightful and just a little bit mysterious.

We’ll explore imagination, finding inspiration in the seasonal transitions, the strange sensation of being raised up by some awe-inspiring event in your life one moment and then having it cut you down and humble you in the next, the idea of a natural order of things vs chaos (or are they the same?)—and so much more.

--

Moments of awe do not require planning or some grand elaborate ceremony—it’s usually quite the opposite. You can find them every day in your partner or child’s smile; in a quiet moment when all is still and you can hear your own breath and heartbeat; in the rising and setting sun; in the wind moving through the leaves of the trees; or the mountains cutting across the sky in the distance—the eternal blue sky above your head. The moments are everywhere, happening all around you, probably even right now. But the thing is, you need to be aware of them. You need to recognize them. Once you do, stop and be with them for a moment, a minute—as long as you can.

There is a perspective shift that comes with awe. It is a way to open your vision to see the bigger picture and to see the world beyond your immediate problems. It is a rope to pull you from your pit, and a bowl of clean water to wash off the mud of the life below.

• Reflection title: A Smile, a Tear, or Mountains and Oceans
• Creative inspiration:  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
• Reflection question: When did I last experience awe? How can I implement at least one moment of awe into my days moving forward?

July: On Family

July 31

This is a simple one. 

Love is what it all comes down to. 

It makes all the difference.

It makes us who we are.

And wherever you find love—

—you find family.

• Reflection title: The Root of the Tree of Life
• Creative inspiration:  Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor
• Reflection question: How am I bringing my love into the world? How am I helping others become who they are with my love?

July: On Family

July 30

Out of a whole life of moments—about 2.5 billion if you count each second as a moment and live to 80—birth and death only make up for two (give or take a few). Granted, they are two very important ones. That leaves a whole lot of space in between. And in those in-between moments, you’ll of course find joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, loss and gain—and every blend and nuance of these emotions and experiences. You’ll have high highs and low lows, and that’s all well and good. But the one thing (if you’re lucky enough to find it) that can make those moments truly special, is experiencing them with another—that person you love unconditionally and who unconditionally loves you, whoever it might be. Your world entire.

Now, I understand some people have set out searching for this and feel they haven’t found it. I understand some people feel they have had it and lost it. It’s a complicated thing, no doubt about it—what isn’t in life? I guess what I want to say is that if you’ve had it and lost it, I’m glad you had it for however long. If you have it, I hope you hold on to it. And if you’re searching for it, I hope you find it. Or if you’re okay with being alone and you find happiness and contentment in yourself and in nature—that’s fine, too.

I hope you find joy and peace in more than just a few of those billions of moments between birth and death.

• Reflection title: Billions of Moments
• Creative inspiration:  Cormac McCarthy, The Road
• Reflection question: Who is my world entire? Who am I living out my moments with that makes it all worth it?