Awe and being more human

How has your week been?

When I started the week, I thought I’d be exploring awe…

The recent conversation between Elizabeth Oldfield and Dacher Keltner, Berkley Professor of Psychology, for The Sacred podcast had reignited my wonder at this capacity for the transcendent we know in moments of awe.

So, how did I end up thinking about becoming more human?

Perhaps it’s not such a stretch.

We most fully embrace our humanity, not when we think we are separate or different, but when we realise we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

Our purpose and meaning are revealed as we become more fully alive. That means embracing the whole of us in this time and place.

Being open to this deeper sense of connectedness also primes us to experience awe. Whether that’s in nature, relationships, music and art, or other ways that we sense something beyond ourselves, we are drawn into the experience of vastness and meaning, even if we struggle to put it into words.

So, being more human means coming home to our humanity, stepping out of the comfortable box we may have created to protect ourselves, but which numbs us to the world around us.

Paradoxically, I wonder if more of us had glimpses of this experience during the early stages of the pandemic. Held inside the confines of our homes, we often experienced a sense of connectedness beyond our immediate environment. And then, as the world opened up and became faster, we retreated…

Yet the invitation is always there. And I am thrilled to see more and more people waking up to the opportunity to embrace their aliveness wherever they are.

To paraphrase Howard Thurman: the world doesn’t need more solutions; it needs more people who are fully alive.

Pause. See differently. Re-story…

This week

In encountering life, we also have the opportunity to speak and act in a way that makes others feel less alone and forgotten. On Wednesday, the quote from Maya Angelou’s son, Guy Johnson, was a pivot point for me and led to my poem about being ready to be human on Thursday.

• Monday: Being open to awe
• Tuesday: Encountering life…
• Wednesday: Be More Poet – a midweek Pause for Peace
• Thursday: Are we ready to be human? (poem)
• Friday: Wanting to be more human

A few good words

I would thoroughly recommend the conversation between Elizabeth and Dacher for The Sacred podcast (it is spiritual rather than religious!). If you want to delve deeper into Dacher’s work, his book Awe: The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder or his conversation with Krista Tippett for OnBeing: The Thrilling New Science of Awe are good places to start.