Living in radical amazement
This past week we saw the first snowfall of the season in Ireland, and suddenly our ordinary everyday landscape is transformed. We look at everything around us through fresh eyes, marvelling at the newness and the beauty of what yesterday we took for granted. The air is hushed and still all the better to pause and drink it all in. If only we could stand in this attitude of wonder and amazement every day, marvelling anew at what is before us, as this quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us:
“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
How to Stop the World and Be Still
So agree! Snow has such a magical way of doing this before our very eyes. Someone once said to me a similar way of looking at people; imagine them with wings on their back…
I love the quote you’ve used, & I’m adding it to some of my favorites. Enjoy the snow- seems there’s lots more to look forward too 🙂
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Couldn’t agree more! It just makes everything look better!
And so nice to see people, kids out playing in the snow with smiling faces. It’s been so doom and gloom here lately.
Nice post!
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Good morning Marie,
What a beautiful reminder at the start of my day. We had had snow through out the night. Along with the snow came 40 mph winds, so this morning I stand in amazement at how the trees, plants, etc stay rooted with such sustained winds and frigid temp.
I too, love the quote…and plan on sharing it!
Have a great day!
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Marie your photo is beautiful! Thank you for the reminder to look at today in Radical Amazement! Wonder what it will bring? I am excited 🙂 Hugs
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Now this is what I call a great way to start the day. What a terrific reflection and like the other readers above, I am saving that quote too 😉
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I love that phrase radical amazement, it is so well..radical 🙂
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What would our world be like if we woke up every day with this attitude I wonder?
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There certainly is something special about the first snowfall. It seems Mother Nature has the incredible ability to remind us of or give us back our proper perspective on things. Nice post, Marie.
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Thanks Nancy and you are so right about that magical first snowfall – as time goes in and the snow keeps falling or it turns to slush, it seems be become less enamoured of its beauty!
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I love the concept of living each day in ‘radical amazement’. It can be a struggle at times for sure, when a variety of life’s little and big things pop into your path. Been struggling a bit and the effort to live each day with that awe and gratitude sometimes seems like too much. But I guess Joel would say then I am closer than I think to breaking through the struggle. When we are closest to our victory the ‘enemy’ works the hardest to hold us back, but we have to trust in God to lead us to victory and we must stay in faith and hope.
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Hang on in there sweetie – you teach me so much about living with an attitude of gratitude x
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Such a lovely simple idea, Marie! I felt exactly this way on Sunday morning, when I looked out the window and saw everything covered in snow. It was so quiet and beautiful – I pulled on my clothes, wrapped up warm and headed out into my neighbourhood with a camera, something I’ve never done before. The main street was empty of cars and people, sunlight creeping over white rooftops and trees – everything was new. I spent over an hour just walking around a place I all but ignored every day, taking pictures – delighting in every beautiful thing I noticed. I came home feeling lighter and happier than I have in a long time and the feeling stayed with me. For the rest of the day I would catch myself smiling, as I remembered a flower all but covered in snow, its flash of colour peeking through the white or leaves frozen in the ice of a nearby pond or a little girl in a bobble hat stamping through a group of pigeons, startling them into a storm of wings. Radical amazement – I recommend.
ax
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This is a truly beautiful quote – and I have to say that it works just as well here where we have no snow! It is so important to be open and embrace all the good things which surround us.
Thanks M
xx
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Absolutely Philippa!
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I read this on the day it was posted, which was over a week ago now. And your description of how the snow has transformed the mundane in the beautiful and picturesque, reminded me of a passage from the well known children’s book ‘The Wind in the Willows’.
So I decided to come back when I had found that same passage and share it with you. In context, the short paragragh is quite moving, I only hope that one can capture that same sense when reading it as a stand-alone piece.
With thanks,
Darcy.
“The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood that had been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes, hollows, pools, pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were vanishing fast, and a gleaming carpet of faery was springing up everywhere, that looked too delicate to be trodden upon by rough feet.”
-The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame
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