Dear friends,
I have always been astonished at the fact of existence,
The existence of anything at all,
And especially of course our own existence.
So I welcome you to this meditation on awe and wonder.
I hope you will find that this pause for reflection will rekindle your sense of astonishment at the world around you,
And fill you with a sense of gratitude at the fact that you are amazingly alive.
One reason why we might take these things for granted is that we don't take time to stop.
So let's begin our meditation by stopping for a change.
If you find it comfortable to do so,
You might like to close your eyes,
And I invite you to take a few deep breaths.
As you breathe in,
Notice that you are breathing in the energy of the universe.
From time to time we all suffer from tension,
Not only in our bodies but in our minds as well.
So as you breathe out,
Imagine you are letting go of anything that is troubling you right now.
Simply breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in the energy of the universe,
Breathing out any tension or worry.
Next call to mind some place that you've been to,
Or something that you've seen,
That fills you with a sense of wonderment.
This might be a place in nature,
You might recall a sunset,
A fabulous blue sky,
An uplifting piece of music.
And the creations of humanity can also bring us to a sense of admiration.
Think of extraordinary buildings of the past and the present.
Notice that as you sit here listening to this meditation,
You are sitting on a chair in your house,
In your neighbourhood,
In your town or city,
In your country or your continent,
And on this wonderful planet Earth.
Your home planet is only a dot in the universe that is day by day revealing more and more of its immensity and its wonder.
You and I are not separate from this beauty,
We are a part of it.
As has been said,
We are made of stardust.
Your arms and your legs might appear to be the same age as yourself,
But what goes to make up you and I is as old as the universe itself.
The same force that animates the trees,
That gives life to every living thing,
The force that gives rise to water,
That gives light to the sun and the stars,
Is flowing through you and me every minute of every day.
Let's take a one minute pause now to reflect on the wonder of existence.
Welcome back.
Naturally we feel a sense of wonder and awe and we can marvel when we see something or hear something we find amazing,
But every moment of our existence can give rise to feelings of stunned silence if only we take the time to notice.
Have you noticed how children take in everything with a sense of adventure?
When our son was very young I remember his astonishment when he looked through the window of our back door and he saw a dog for the first time.
Can you imagine how it must feel to see a creature so unlike anything that you've seen in your life so far?
If we stop,
Really look and really listen we can see things in all their wondrous reality.
We'll notice the different shapes,
The variety of colour and the intricate texture of things.
One taken for granted marvel is the fact that we have ground beneath our feet,
That we are held fast to planet earth by gravity,
A force that we cannot see.
People in Australia looking at a globe of the world and thinking of people in Europe will see us as hanging upside down,
Provided that is that they stop to reflect to allow space for a moment of wonder.
Albert Einstein once said,
He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe is as good as dead,
His eyes are closed.
We live in an ever more busy world,
A world that tends to give more value to efficiency and productivity rather than contemplation,
And we can get caught up in things and easily forget to pause and truly see the world in all its breathtaking beauty.
What a pity if we were to go through our lives missing out on all the splendour of the everyday world.
Before we end this meditation,
Let's have another pause to allow for a moment of gratitude.
Let us give thanks for the beauty of the earth,
For the gift of life and for our ability to experience enchantment,
A 60 second pause.
Welcome back again.
This practice of awe and wonder is not something that we do once and then set aside,
What a pity that would be.
This practice can and must become for us a way of being and of seeing.
We have to bring ourselves back to this practice regularly,
We'll be introduced to a fresh way of seeing the world.
This will transform what would otherwise be very routine home from everyday experiences into something marvellous.
When we live with a sense of awe,
We move through life with a sense of gratitude.
We gain a feeling of reverence and humility and we come to recognise the sacredness in all things.
Maestro Eckhart reminds us,
If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you,
It will be enough.
May we stop to notice the everyday wonders around us and may we remember every day to say thank you.
Namaste.
