“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel
Chip is out moose hunting in the fog, and I am home puppy sitting. My timing on adopting a new dog was not the best when it comes to hunting season, but I’ve been stalking something else that is more essential than meat right now for me, and that is restoring my confidence and faith in the stories I share, the real work I do, after the recall and the months of defending myself.
So I listened to On Being this morning, and answered emails, and found love in them from readers both near and far who want to hear from me, while learning all about Rabbi Heschel. Who knew he and Mary Oliver would have so much in common? This is from a man who lost most of his family in the Holocaust, and who marched with Martin Luther King. In other words, a man of God who knows about how awful and evil people can be– and yet this is the song he sings:
“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.”
Yes!
Just yesterday, as the rain ceased, the tide flooded, the wind dropped to less than a whisper, and the river’s flow seemed stilled as well, there was about ten minutes when the color of the inlet changed from brown to blue gray, and the sky altered too- the light shifted– and I stepped out with the dogs, amazed. (And this is the place I live, and see, all the time!)
The glacial silt that makes the river opaque as creamy coffee on some days, and like flat jade paint on others, had, for that one moment in time, cleared. I could see the bottom. I was amazed, and surprised- and it was exactly what I needed. Here’s a thought: what or who made me look out the window at that moment so I wouldn’t miss it? Why was I curious? Where does that come from?
I can bet what the good rabbi would answer.
