How often have you experienced awe, the emotion that is a combination of both fear and appreciation? After several experiences, I have become awe prone, allowing myself to experience the “dilation of my imagination” and fullness of being. Awe has opened the door to the complex admixture of probing life’s mysteries while basking in the beingness of the present moment.
One such awe experience occurred one night while I was on an airplane, more than 30 thousand feet above ground, when the pilot, in an excited voice, announced that there was a “light show” on the left side of the plane. I quickly looked out of the airplane window, feeling lucky that I was seated on the left side and therefore able to see the spectacle clearly. The lightning flashed brilliantly from what seemed like only a few hundred feet away. The “show” was truly “awesome” or awful- both ways of describing it are appropriate. My response was a combination of immediate fright with no possibility of escape, and deep, abiding fascination with the sheer power and beauty of nature’s energy. Then suddenly I had an inspired sense of reverence for the energy of the universe, even though in that moment I still experienced the lightning as outside myself. But soon, I realized that I AM THAT universe and that lightning, one with all in the universe, so then I felt both love and humility. Awe changes how we think of the “outside” world; it changes how we experience the present moment of our life.
Another experience of awe occurred when I stood stunned on the edge of the Grand Canyon. It’s difficult to escape the awe of seeing the vast beauty of that approximately 17 million year old magnificence. My smallness once again produced appreciation but my thoughts turned quickly to the dangers and mysteries that could lie within the Canyon. The size of the colorful valley alone is overwhelming, but mysteries about the Canyon raise questions about the entire universe. The Canyon is mystical, like a hologram of our Galaxy filled with mysteries of the universe. As Albert Einstein said,” The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.”
But I don’t visit the Grand Canyon or fly through or around lighting on a regular basis. The rarity of those events do not preclude the emergence of opportunities to allow awe. My great niece provides opportunities. She is a 6 year old gymnast who flips and jumps with awesome agility and flexibility on high beams, parallel bars and floor mats. I watch her practice with all the protective fearfulness that she lacks in her embracing of adventure. I am in awe of the heart in her practice, and the mysteries and capabilities of the human body. She is universal energy in vivid motion.
There are countless opportunities to allow awe in my life. From the brilliance of a sunset from my deck to watching the grateful flowers in my garden turn their faces toward the morning rain. Nature is a relentless source of awe, whether it is witnessing the stoic growth of plants or trees or the complementarity of land and sea, we can connect with their beauty and their power. To the extent that we see and feel our oneness with nature, we cannot escape being in awe. Being in communion with all of life deepens our sense of the infinite.
Awe raises questions with no easy answers, but the questions make our lives an evolving story rather than a stale tale of suffering and challenges. In difficult times, awe rescues us from despair because we see beyond the conditions in our lives to how the challenges themselves can reveal unsolved mysteries. Awe, the brief experience of joy and love, can create what Dr. Paul Pearsall described as “unbounded delight, humbling dread and excited incredulousness.”
If we want to see the fullness of the present moment, awe is the lens. Allow awe to disrupt the illusion of certainty, the routine nature of a life of doing and activity, and move deeply into being and thriving as the spirit that you are.