Living in Awe

 

Day 259

Affirmation:

I am grateful to be an observer of all the miracles, magic, and wonder around me.

I see synchronicity and purpose in the unfolding of experiences.

I am in awe of the underlying Divine order amidst the seemingly mundane chaos.

Thoughts:

Living on auto-pilot gets us from A to B and usually pretty effectively, but is it a joy-full ride? Is it meaning-full? Is it spiritually and emotionally fulfilling? Or is it flat and unemotional? Even productivity can be filled with awe if we switch our mode of travel from reflexive and autonomic to intentional and mindful. Being aware of a bigger picture and an underlying mystery and magic within existence can turn the most monotonous into the supremely miraculous.

Here are a few ideas for simple things each of us can do to help turn on our awareness and step into the awe:

Pick up a camera and walk around your world.  Spend at least an hour seeing your world through the lens of a camera,  taking photos of any and every thing you find of interest.  Seek the curious, the wondrous, the beautiful and the inspiring.  Get low, look high. We tend to save picture-taking for events and occasions, but the photo-worthy moments are always here and now.

Have a media, technology, and print free day. Avoid all computer, television, radio, telephone, book, magazine, and even mail stimulation. We live in a world of endless mental processing. We’re inundated with information and when our brains are being flooded it’s pretty hard to hear the sound of a cat purring or see the light filtering through the autumn leaved trees. Spend the day just being present in your world and your experiences. Be aware of what is happening around you as you see, hear, taste, smell, and perceive it. It may take planning ahead, but can be done.

Take an A-W-E walk. I used to do this with my son and it was always an eye-opening experience, both literally and figuratively. On your walk, look for one awe-inspiring thing that begins with each of the three letters in the word AWE. For example, you might see an ant trail.  Even though ANT begins with A, but you see nothing awe-inspiring in an ant trail. Get closer and look again. They’re amazing creatures with clear purpose, motivation, and determination. The exercise may seem easy but it’s a little harder than it sounds and that’s intentional – it forces us to look at the ordinary and see the extraordinary.

Keep a coincidence notebook.  Keeping track of those “wow, what are the chances?” moments, the synchronicities and the unexplainable happenstances, allows us to be witness to Creation at work. IT is laying roads and creating networks, connecting lives and opening doors all the time. Writing them down makes us aware, and hopefully, awed.

Einstein had the right idea.  From Amazon