On quite a few occasions during a recent US trip, I found myself in a state of awe. Confronted by the space, the vastness, by nature in various forms shaped by the longest time and the greatest powers, one can’t help but feel small and humbled.
Being in awe allows a sense of insignificance and fatality to emerge, set in and be acknowledged. These are rare occurances, at least for myself. Most of the time, I’m guilty of feeding and basking in my own ego-centric presence, in my own ‘bigness’, my gifts and achievements. So once in a while, it is good and beneficial to be confronted by our insignificance and fragility amidst our uniqueness. We are made conscious of our good fortune, our gifts, of the people, circumstances and things that give us hope, joy and inspiration. We are reminded to be grateful and be present.
Our mere existence is an awe-inspiring miracle in itself. The odds of us being born as us are something like one in 400 million; that is the probability of us being born at the time at which we were born, to our particular set of parents and with our unique genetic makeup. That’s how ‘special’ each of us are.
That said, we don’t always need the mind-boggling statistics or the jaw-dropping landscapes to bring us into a state of awe. Be aware of the mundane, the routine and little things you encounter daily. They too, are the products of nature’s providence and possibilities, and of the human and situational probabilities and serendipities. And if we care to stop for a moment and look deeper, they are each precious and unique in their own way. The perfect symetry of a fallen leaf and the seemingly deliberate and beautiful movements of its descent; the little steps taken by a toddler; the interlocking of eyes with a stranger across the room that gave your spirits a little lift; the marriage of well-grown and carefully roasted coffee beans with the craft and attention of the barista to deliver that perfect cup of coffee.
These are all but a sprinkling of moments, experiences and events that we come across daily to remind us of the beauty and fragility of life- and they all deserve at least a little bit of awe.
Well said! We are fortunate to be alive, and we should make time to both celebrate and reflect.
A life lived according to nature requires only the bare necessities.