Awe and Wonder

September 7, 2025.

The news seems to be filled with so much horror and cruelty and yet at the same time there is also much beauty and goodness in the world.

Life, especially at this time in 2025 involves a confusing mixture of feelings and experiences.

We have up-close screen views of the suffering and trauma of the world. We hear about bombings while preparing salad for dinner. Dispiriting lies fly around the media and we notice that sun rays make raindrops look like sparkling diamonds. Videos of ordinary people being detained by armed, masked men seem ridiculously juxtaposed with the sight of an elder and a small girl flying a kite together.

How then can we hold the good alongside the horror?

How can we resist moving into confusion and despair?

Perhaps by avoiding doomscrolling. Or by putting our heads in the sand. But ostriching doesn’t fit for most of us, especially when we have hearts for justice and a love for our earth and its inhabitants.

Cole Arthur Riley says that we can resist despair by anchoring ourselves in beauty, [1]. She invites us into the practice of beholding, having fidelity to seeking beauty in all things, [2].

I would add that paying attention to beauty as well as to places of truth and goodness can bring us to awe and wonder. That is, if we surrender to these moments.

A delightful added benefit of seeking awe and wonder in our lives is that this spiritual practice can move us into our inward journey where we meet the Holy One, [3]. I'd say that's a beautiful way, (forgive the pun) to connect with the Divine.

Where might we experience wonder and awe? Nature is probably the first place to look. Or in loving relationships. But there are many other places that can bring us to awe—I've found myself feeling teary and having a sense of wonder while experiencing dance, song, the visual arts, poetry, the night sky, and rituals. And even while reading a good novel and spending time with my cockapoo Kona.

I invite you to use your imagination in seeking spaces and places of goodness, truth, and beauty. And to surrender to these awe-inspiring moments.

Today’s video practice is a prayer from Cole Arthur Riley’s “Wonder” Ritual, [4]. The words to the breath prayer are below the video.

Words to the video’s breath prayer:

Inhale: Holy One, awaken my soul to beauty.

Exhale: I resist the tyranny of despair.

Inhale: I can pause to behold and to listen.

Exhale: I am healed by beauty.

Inhale: I choose a life enchanted.

Exhale: There is a miracle in the ordinary.

1. Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London, UK, 2024, 33.

2. Ibid, 33.

3. Barbara Holmes, Joy Unspeakable: Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, (2nd Ed.), Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2017, 198.

4. Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies, 38-39.

   
   
   
   

   This blog is dedicated to the memory of Maureen Fowler, a beloved spiritual mentor.