8. Be Amazed

We are called to stand steady and be amazed at all that we do not know, all that we cannot control, all that may yet unfold. 

Amazement is such a welcome place to rest.

You can bake bread and be amazed to see how the yeast rises. You can watch someone you have known a very long-time sleep and wonder at their existence. You can watch the snowstorm and be amazed at its beauty, no matter the date on the calendar. You can read about people who have died who you never knew, and be amazed at your own connection to them, and the tears they draw from you that you did not know you possessed. 

We are in a time of waiting. But there is waiting in terror and there is waiting in amazement. 

Choose amazement. Choose to align yourself with divine though, which is your noblest self. Choose to stand and be amazed. 

“The natural world is subject as well as object. The natural world is the maternal source of our being as earthlings and life-giving nourishment of our physical, emotional, aesthetic, moral and religious existence. The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.”

— Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth