Do you remember when we were young and blowing a big bubble or spotting a butterfly or picking a beautiful flower could spark instant delight and awe? — when the simplest thing created wide-eyed wonder and an experience of “WOW?”
Then, we grow up…
…and the responsibilities of adulthood often dim that special childhood “eyesight.” The challenges of our task-driven lives weigh us down — and we rush by the butterflies and the flowers with only a passing glance as we move on to “more important” matters…
The truth is — AMAZEMENT gives INSTANT stress relief! It immediately opens up the heart and lifts us above the tangle of pressures and worries that suffocate us. There is really no problem with our eyes — we just have to make more of an effort to PAY ATTENTION and NOTICE …
Opportunities for amazement are all around us ALL the time! Try an experiment — challenge yourself to notice at least 5 new amazing things every day. It’s even more powerful if you share them with someone else — or you might celebrate them by writing them down in an “amazement journal.”
Poet Mary Oliver developed an incredible gift for “noticing” during her lifetime and wrote hundreds of exquisite poems which continue to bless us with descriptions of her stunning observations and “aha” moments.
She said: “When it’s all over I want to say: All my life I was a bride married to amazement.“
“What I want in my life is to be dazzled — To cast aside the weight of facts and maybe even float little above this difficult world…”
“Pay attention Be astonished Tell about it “
Another great poet, E.E. Cummings, penned “Thank You God for Most This Amazing Day“ — a prayer in which he exudes total joy at God’s gift of our spectacular world. I love his final line:
“(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)”
Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947) set this poem to music in 1999, creating a wonder-full song of praise Click here to listen to it… and then — PUT ON YOUR CHILDHOOD EYES to start “paying attention…”
Be prepared to “be astonished…”
Then — “tell about it!”
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