How did it all begin?
Why are we here?
What does it all mean?
These are the age old questions. Questions that have compelled, perplexed and tormented countless humans through history. Quite honestly I couldn’t care less! Don’t get me wrong. I would LOVE to know if there was or is some magnificent being, a catastrophic even, a plan, any of it!Then again, wouldn’t answers just lead to more questions? Or the same questions all over again? What would it actually change? Not much I wager.
What if rather than wondering about “the big bang” we just wonder at life in general with a sense of awe. What if life itself was “the big wow”? Would that change things?
Let’s imagine together for a few minutes shall we?
Have you ever looked at a flower? Really looked, long and hard, at the arrangement of the petals, the layers and texture of the center? The veins in the leaves and stem. Have you felt the delicacy? Have you noticed the strength? Like in the spring for example when the early perennials poke their tiny green heads through the still white layers of snow. So delicate, intricate, strong, purposeful and beautiful! Wow….is there any other word for that? Every day we pass by flowers. We pick them, mow them, step on them and gift them. Sometimes we enjiy their beauty but rarely we stop to marinate in how astonishingly perfect they really are. Just, wow!
What about language? The words we use so cheaply on a daily basis on mass. The same words we sling around with cruel abandon to thoughtlessly, sometimes purposely hurt others. Think for a moment about the level of coorperation and agreement required for language to develop. Not only did language develop but an alphabet and rules! People developed it, shared it, gave it form and function, then taught it and now…here we are! Reading, writing, evolving through shared knowledge across the globe because we have not only mastered our own languages but learned the languages of others so well! Wow!! Honestly, it blows my mind.
Have you ever held a grain of sand in your hand and wondered what else that tiny morsel has once been? What rocky outcrop has been slowly worn down for that grain to be in your palm? How many waves? How many storms pushed it along until it landed on the same beach you visit? What will happen to it once you drop it back to the ground and allow the waves to carry it away once again? Is it possible that you once touched the very same solid surface that has now become the sand?
Allow me to really wow you.
Water…there are more water molecules in a pint of water than there are pints of water in all of earth’s oceans. Also, since earths water supply is a closed loop and recycles slowly over time we are all drinking water that contains molecules previously consumed and passed by all other creatures on earth before us! Since 60% of the human body is water we are literally all made one simply by drinking the water that we are required to drink in order to BE ALIVE! WOW!!!!
I could truly go on forever but I think the point is made. I will say this though. The most mind bending wow of all is how much we have figured out in our relatively short time on earth and the infinite undiscovered “truths”. Which in themselves are ever changing.
Now imagine what daily life would look like, feel like if we all allowed ourselves to move with an active sense and appropriate scope of “WOW”.
I think we would treat ourselves, nature and each other with so much more respect. We would move with awareness and confidence. If our ancient ancestors could rise out of darkness to develop tools and language and math and science…surely too we can all accomplish the impossible. Imagine believing in the impossible. Believing YOU are capable of anything. Wow!! (We are you know, all of us. The proof is in our very being! It’s all around us.)
Imagine a life lived seeing the beauty in things. Countless hours spent in the observance of insects and flowers, people, water, fire, the sky. Life as a kaleidoscope of colour, movement, emotions, temperature, texture and smells. Nothing right, nothing wrong, everything complex and mesmerizing. Imagine understanding that it is as simple as it is comples. It all fits, we all FIT in the world just as perfectly as those things as those other people. Just imagine! What would it feel like to wholeheartedly know you belong? Because you do. We do. By nature of being of this world we belong. WOW…
No need for explanation.
No devine purpose.
Arift in the “Wow” we feel our way along the waves. We ride the storm, and over time we transform like that tiny grain of sand. The grains of sand we are in the big Wow.
KATE
KATE Mooney 