Soul Matters – August 2015
Sometimes the Universe is not subtle. In the past eight weeks, I was privileged to watch three pairs of birds build their nests close to our house, lay their eggs, and fledge their young. At the same time, a half dozen monarch caterpillars joined us in the kitchen where we’ve watched them grow, form glittering green chrysalises, and emerge as beautiful butterflies. Certainly witnessing the emergence of new life is a gift in and of itself, but what really stood out in this fiesta of fecundity was the fact that this had never before happened in our 13 years of living here.
I believe that everything is meaningful. When you’re about to give up and you get a call that reinvigorates you, or a special number keeps showing up, or the cloud above your car forms a perfect heart, or a hawk soars really low and really close carrying a dead crow in its talons while you are speaking to someone about a psychological struggle, I call it a sign. A message. It means something. Only the completely unimaginative, irretrievably cynical, or abysmally lost in the tyranny of technology would see it otherwise. Important things are being offered all the time if we but pay attention.
As I did my usual front-porch sitting, it occurred to me that there is a rather simple methodology to cultivating a deeper, more meaningful and directed life and it is this: Awareness, Wonder and Entertaining. In a word, A.W.E. The word “awe” means reverential respect, so it’s a perfect acronym; to reverentially respect something is to accord it sacred status. It is seeing beyond our exceedingly bloated and perpetually self-referencing ego and noticing that there is more…much more. And it’s trying to communicate.
So the first step to creating a more meaningful, purposeful life is to notice, to become AWARE. If you’re driving along I-5, not paying any attention to the road signs, you might very well miss your exit. You’ll zoom along, oblivious, going nowhere in particular. In order to receive anything you must be receptive, and you can’t be receptive unless you look up and look around. There’s a whole lotta world going on, myriad worlds, as a matter of fact.
Once you succeed in noticing something, like the fact that you are surrounded by morphing monarchs and nesting birds, it behooves you to stop and consider these phenomena. Instead of shrugging your shoulders and flipping on Real Housewives, you might just WONDER a while, sit for a few minutes of quiet contemplation. This is Step 2. Why all these creatures right now? What do they symbolize? If there were a message in their appearance, what would it be? And who, or what, is sending this message? Hmmm.
Stay with this hmmm-ing a while. Hang out with your wonder. Step 3 is to ENTERTAIN the wonderment without attempting to rush to any sort of answer or conclusion. Give your mighty ego, which wants immediate answers and wishes to appear very smart, a rest. “Live the questions,” Rilke said, and “perhaps you will live your way into the answer.” I still don’t know what that crow-carrying hawk was all about. I have thoughts, but I’m hanging out with them. I’m being a gracious hostess, entertaining the questions and ideas and wonder with cocktails and witty conversation, enjoying their company. Hang out long enough and something is bound to be revealed. And when it is, it will be AWE-SOME.
KATE INGRAM, M.A., is a writer, therapist and soul coach who wonders about lots of things, all the time. To find out more, go to katherineingram.com.