December 21--A Good Season for Awe and Wonder

This is from the Richard Rohr Daily Meditation of Dec 20, written by Lydia Wylie-Kellermann:

Awe and wonder are gifts my kids give me daily.

But also, I believe it is a gift we adults need to give the children in our lives.

These kids are growing up in an incredibly anxious time. Yes, the climate is changing. Weather is more extreme. The future is unpredictable. But also, there is one school shooting after another. Our kids do drills and hide in closets. And Covid … Covid changed everything for them … in an instant. Everything about these children’s lives was turned upside down.

It’s too much. Sure, they are resilient. But, still, it’s too much. I can start to feel anger running through my veins at all these kids are holding. It’s too much.

How could these kids not grow up anxious and worried and stressed and angry?

You know what is an antidote to anxiety and despair? Awe and wonder.

We owe our children awe and wonder!!

It is our job. It is our responsibility to find beauty in unexpected places, to marvel at the miracles around us, and to rest in moments of pure magic.

So, friends, let us—with everything we’ve got—make space for awe and wonder.

We need it. Awe and wonder hold our hearts and bodies in the present moment around us, keeping us from spiraling into whatever is yet to come. We can find it anywhere … in the streets, the woods, our neighborhoods, the shore of the ocean, or in a culvert under the road. It happens in the slowing down. It happens when we let ourselves loose. When we let go of control and are free to stumble upon joy.

Let us show these children in our lives that, amid all the horror, there is a life worth living that can take your breath away and leave you dancing.

Beloved friends,
go out and find a secret portal.
Walk the shoreline
and keep your eye out for magic.
Pull out that old telescope.
Tell wild stories.
Go outside and dance in the rain.
Do ridiculous things.
Be “that” adult who gets the eyeroll
and the side smile.
Laugh often. Slow down.
Feed the imagination.
Clear the space to be washed over
by this wild and wonderful world.

    My older son has moved his family (my two grandsons!) to a home in a 100% awe-and-wonder setting, and I couldn't be happier about that.

    Be amazed today!

            Leta

Awe & wonder in New Zealand