No matter the loneliness, the tragedy, or the harshness of the world, Iowa is full of wonders. I am talking about the kind of wonder that is a surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. Wonders can be routine, or sometimes just over the top. This happened to me one day when I was visiting Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, a country in South America. The falls are the world's widest single drop waterfall, located on the Potaro River in the Amazon Forest. The falls were spectacular: the roar, the mist, the grandeur. Then I heard a large parrot call, and a pair of Red and Green Macaws flew out of the mist, as if the water had conjured them, and they flew right by us. After a short time, the birds returned, flying towards the fall, like they were going to enter the cascade, but instead, turned into the cliff face where they had a nest. I stood mesmerized, knowing I had seen one of the greatest wonders in the world, the colors of the parrots merging with the colors of the rainbows in the cascade thundering behind us.
There are wonders that stand out, and wonders also happen all around us, hundreds of them available to us in one week. People report having three awe experiences a week. How many do you have on average? Think back on this week. How many times did you drop your jaw or open your eyes, even slightly in amazement?
Do you wish you had more wonder? Whatever you answer, there are reasons why we lean into wonder. One reason is that we come by wonder naturally, for we wonder not alone upon this earth.
Jane Goodall was observing her chimpanzees in Gombe when she noticed a male chimp gesturing excitedly at a beautiful waterfall. He perched on a nearby rock and gaped at the flowing torrents of water for a good 10 minutes. Goodall and her team saw such responses on several occasions. She concluded that chimps have a sense of wonder, even speculating about a nascent form of spirituality in our simian cousins.
Maybe we wonder because it helps us connect to that which is good. Wonder, like other emotions, evolved as a motivator to help us move towards satisfaction or benefit, and away from discomfort or harm. It balances with the other emotions. The classic example is of a bear, at least classic for those of us who lived in Alaska where all life can be distilled down to bear stories or metaphors. Wonder draws us to the woods in hopes of seeing a bear, and fear keeps our distance. Too much fear and we never go out, too much wonder and we may get to close and trigger an aggressive action by a bear.
Wonder tempered with all our other emotional tools asks us to take a middle way - to get out and take some risks, but not overly so. With wonder we open, we connect, and life's possibilities open before us. Wonder helps us engage with the world to live in ways that integrate the reality that beauty is ever present. It also helps us face the also true, but harsher reality of harm, illness, death, disappointment, and massive suffering. Without wonder, we risk closing off to life, living more shallow lives, less intimacy and vibrancy.
One study showed how wonder opens us up. A group of researchers took teenagers and veterans rafting. A week later the participants reported being more engaged and curious about the world.
Wonder also lifts depression, and in one study showed people to have less inflammation as measured in saliva. It helps our prosocial behaviors - we become more empathetic, humble, and generous. When we have more empathy, others resonate with us better and we have improved relationships. Our self identity moves from a separate self to being part of a whole, or the whole itself. By merely writing about awe, we become kinder, more compassionate, and this can extend to other species and the biotic community as a whole.
I lead Bird Walks and Nurture Nature workshops and retreats where the goal is to see how we have choice in moving towards that which is good for us and others. How can we nurture human nature so that we can nurture all of nature? I believe this is an important question in this time of climate change, loss of biodiversity, extinction, polarized and dysfunctional politics – the list goes on but let’s just shorten it and call it the Polycrisis.
We need all the help we can get, and two primary aspects of human nature to help us nurture is to wonder about the beauty that connects all life. I’m going to invite us to consider specific practices that help us nurture wonder, and let us begin with music. Bruce – can you play something wondrous?
[MUSICAL INTERLUDE]
There are many ways to nurture wonder, as Rumi wrote:
Let the beauty we are be what we do,Let me suggest four. The first way is to wonder out in nature. These are wow experiences.
there are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
I was leading a multigenerational bird tour once in New Mexico with one of our congregations there, and the children were out of their daily routine, and were perhaps a bit hesitant, especially Jimmy. His mother had a cocaine habit, and he was born addicted to cocaine and had issues with connecting and resonating with others. We had come across a field full or snow geese, bright white in the sun. Suddenly they all took to the air, their wings vibrating in the very depths of our body and ancestral knowing. The children transformed, they came alive, were pure joy and connection, especially Jimmy who jumped, danced, cried out, and ran to his grandparents to be close to them, to be held, to connect, and to share in that wonder together. Nature is full of unexpected and surprising events that we cannot foresee, and this is good for us.
James Austin, a neurologist, encourages us to have nature experiences because they help integrate our neurological processing and contribute to mindfulness and living in the present moment with attention and gratitude. He particularly suggests looking up, and gives many examples of how this can wire us for presence, including an event that happened to me years ago. I told this story last year when I preached last, but it bears repeating because of the impact of how looking up is good for us, whether it comes in a rush, or more slowly.
I was out walking in Guatemala studying parrot nests, and my guide was a local Guatemalan. We weren't seeing many birds so we began to talk. He wanted to tell me of his love of Jesus and Mary, and I put up my guard a little bit, unsure if he was proselytizing me or expecting something from me I could not give. I was disconnecting and distancing myself from him mentally, when we came up to the forest's edge where the sun was just rising over the tree tops in a shroud of misty fog. Suddenly a loud flock of parrots burst forth from the tree canopy. Before I knew what happened, I was on my knees in the grass, weeping. I had been so startled with awe and beauty, I just fell. Afterwards I was a little embarassed, but, more than anything, I had a sudden clarity and connection to humanity and the world. I knew that when people said words like Mary and Jesus, it was like when I said birds and trees. That experience was part of moving towards things spiritual, towards beauty, towards service, and towards an ease around religious differences, for I glimpsed the wonder moving beneath it all.
Dr. Austin says my experiences were not usual. Indeed, in another study the researchers asked students to gaze up at trees, a task known to evoke awe. The other half turned their back to the trees. Afterwards they approached each group of students with a questionnaire and pretended to trip and drop pens on the ground. The awe group picked up 10% more pens, and felt less entitlement to payment for their participation in the study.
So looking up is good for us, whether it is the stars and moon, the trees, migrating birds in the night, or the trees. Let's take a moment to look up at trees, shall we? Wonder in nature are wow experiences. Like other emotions, having facial expressions of it and even acting it out, helps evoke it, such as saying Wow! Would you say it with me now? WOW!
A second way to develop wonder is to consider that nature isn't just out there; it's everywhere. How do we wonder at the ordinary, and move towards the banal and boring? The uncomfortable even? It's one thing to wonder at the exploding green leafy trees and the flower colors around us, but how do we do it when the leaves are brown and gone? Where is the wonder in the slushy dark days of winter while scrolling through the news about disaster and death?
There is more to wonder at than the last audacious thing that crazy politician said that evokes in us a sense of disdain, anger, or really energy. Really? It takes practice to cultivate wonder in the daily things, so our wonder isn't a REALLY response, but a more gentle really response. Again, we lead with our bodies by saying Really. Say it with me, would you? REALLY?!
To grow wonder, we can slow down and ask what is wondrous in the of ordinary or routine objects in your day. How did that get to be here? Why is it here? If the object is being that is alive, what are they doing and thinking? How is it connected to me and the web of life? Let us practice some shall we? Pick something in this room that is boring. I hope you are not looking at me. Maybe pick the wood in this room. How did it get to be here? Woody trees only evolved in the late Devonian period about 360 million years ago. The appearance of trees and forests were one of the triggers for the two major extinction events in the Devonian when over 50% of the world's genera went extinct. Today there are 3 trillion trees, 400 for every human. There are more of them than us, and they caused terrible drastic climate change and extinction. We're not so bad, really?!
This leads us to the third way of nurturing nature - seeing wonder in our own kind. If we could tap into wonder of the miracle of our own existence, not just in babies and the geniuses, what might our lives look like to see beauty in all the faces around us all the time? When considering other humans we ask:
How are we here at all?
What are we thinking and feeling?
How can we build bridges and go into space?
Why is it that we can be kind given all the challenges of life?
From my experience as a minister and conservationist, one of the biggest spiritual challenges I see for us is to see wonder in our own kind. We need to leave behind the sense of being bored, or blaming others, which can be summed up with an attitude of Dude! Instead we move to a softer and more grateful expression of Dude! Such as with Fonzi we can give others an “okay” sign. Say it with me please and then look at those around you. DUDE!
Those around you are also you,-- their wonder and beauty is yours, as is the whole world’s. We need to own how awesome is our own thinking, feeling, actions, and presence in the world. If we do not wonder at ourselves, we shut down the possibility to marvel and connect with all of life.
Cultivating wonder with all life helps us not only connect and heal, but we become better nurtuers of other species and the planet ecosystems. Cultivating wonder takes practice. So let us practice now with me. Repeat after me, I'm good! I'M GOOD!
Now, let's put it all together.
WOW. REALLY? DUDE I'M GOOD!
It's in our nature to wonder, and to nurture nature: ours, theirs, the earth's. Let us do it for ourselves and for all life.
WONDERING MEDITATION
We are almost through here, and we return to own lives. What will you do to connect to wonder?
There are some things that we can do to help us connect. Looking at nature, walking in nature, even looking at pictures of nature helps. Body movement is an important part of this – our body can lead us into physical states where we are more open and more likely to connect and wonder.
Let me suggest a few we can do right now, and you ca npraticipate as you wish, save it for later, and certainly turn off you video if you like. We can do them and then I can explain.
- Breathe deep – stimulates the vagal nerve and helps you feel safe
- Hold hands out – says I’m not feeling vulnerable
- Look up – we talked about that in the service – integrates brain patterns and increases compassion
- Twirl around – off blanace – feel comfortable
- Touch the ground – physical sensation tells the body what is happening beyond the mental loops in which we can get trapped
- Bow – greater humility – I give myself to you
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