“Without attention, the human sense of wonder and the holy will stir occasionally, but to become a steady flame it must be tended.”
― Huston Smith
As a young outdoor enthusiast, one of the things I was searching for was a sense of wonder and the holy.
And amongst the rivers and hills and beaches and wild places of New Zealand I found more than enough. It felt like my spirit was filled up and brought to the forefront of my life, the worry and doubt and niggles of every day living receding out of sight.
It’s the reason I became an outdoor instructor.
I loved the satisfaction that came from helping people. But I thought getting paid to be in a place where I had a chance to be fully alive and free of the things that dragged me down was the biggest of bonuses.
I made nature my church. That was where I went to worship, that’s where I went to nurture and recharge and get perspective.
And yet my problem was it never lasted. I couldn’t stay tuned in … I’d return home from the outdoors and the negativity and overwhelm slowly crept back in.
I thought the answer might be going to live in the church itself. To give up responsibility and all annoying attachments, and go wild.
But my true problem was that I confused the source of my beloved sense of wonder and the holy …
I thought it had a physical location – in nature – just like I thought worry and stress and blah lived in the city.
The truth is what we seek is never outside of us.
Don’t get me wrong.
There are certain places – and people – that do give us more, that feel right, that are a source of quality and harmony. There are sacred places, portals of power, there are beings who truly inspire and remind us.
But that is the key point ... the word “remind”.
Spirit, soul, stillness, presence, a sense of awe, wonder and the divine, truly alive passion for life … the source of all that is good is already within each and every one of us.
Transforming “our passing illuminations into abiding light”, as Huston Smith put it, is like gardening. Tending is the right word. It takes cultivation to bring out and stabilise what we want more of. It takes consistent daily practice, it takes moment to moment application, it take persistence.
If you want a life of ho hum, then don’t drive. Let your awareness run where ever it might.
If you want no ordinary moments, if you want to fill yourself up with a sacred celebration of life, if you want a life so whole you feel like you could burst, care your garden. Tend. Practice. Find the source of wonder within. Explore there. Get so familiar you never lose connection with that wellspring.
Don’t split your life into the divine and the ordinary. You take your Self where ever you go. Every place and everything is a chance to be reminded. There don’t have to be any ordinary moments.
The finger always points back at your own heart.
Go well,
Arjuna