There is a note in my notebook (good place for it):
awe is good for you
The source of this one was an e-mail, one of those mailing lists I was on where they send you inspirational notes along with a sales pitch for a workshop. My vague recollection is that they were saying that awe was good for you like eating well is good for you – it has an actual physical effect.
It took a couple of days for the meaning to really sink in. I realized that without knowing it, I had been finding awe in little things and apparently doing myself a lot of good. Some might call it distraction. Others would call it listening to my inner artist. I probably called it ‘appreciating fleeting moments’. But after I read that e-mail, I knew it was awe. Yay, me!
And as a few more days went by, I began to watch how people behave when it comes to awe. I think, on some level, most people know that awe is good for them. They feel it when they experience something special, like Christmas morning or a spectacular fireworks display.
And then they try to recreate it.
They mean well. They want to share this good thing with their kids and their friends. And sometimes they succeed. But sometimes they go overboard, and instead of awe you have awful.
Because awe is a gentle, kind thing. It isn’t blasting your eardrums for an entire hour. It isn’t rushing around, desperate to check things off a list. Awe comes to you without warning, without effort. It makes you smile.
At least my kind of awe works that way.
So here’s my little plea to the world: Share the awe, not the awful. Remember that joy doesn’t need to explode. Remember that gifts are best when you don’t expect them. Remember that special moments are there for us every day. Remember that
awe is good for you
Take the time to notice the world around you…