The Dawn of Wonder

“It’s when we face for a moment the worst our kind can do and shutter to face the taint within our selves that awe cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart.”
-Denise Levertov (1923-1997)
 
Merriam-Webster defines awe as “an emotion variously containing dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime.”  This one small word captures the range of our human emotional existence and wraps it with a nod to something bigger than we are.
 
Poet Denise Levertov served as a civilian nurse in London during the Blitz, so it’s certain she saw an array of the atrocities that humans can inflict on each other, much as we did 18 years ago this week on that sunny September morning of 9/11.  As we contemplate the lines she wrote, noted above, we may question what awe could possibly enter our heart after witnessing “the worst our kind can do”.   
 
But when we witness events that cause strong emotions, and we turn toward those emotions as we experience them, giving each of them their due, allowing them their space, maybe awe sets in at our human ability to experience a wide range of emotions, often in quick succession, some with incredible magnitude and others more subtle.  Maybe there is a sense of “This is here, flowing through me, and I am here with it. “ When we learn to trust that we have the capacity to let these emotions flow through us, to handle the surge and the ebb, the roar and the quiet, we begin to understand our resilience….. and wonder dawns.
 
Setting aside expectations for any sense of awe, we will simply turn toward our emotions this week, letting them flow through us, acknowledging their tone and presence, and our presence with them.
 
We hope that you will join us.

May wonder dawn on us all,
Your friends at CMP

Image by Christian S from Pixabay