ethic of wonder: an antidote
In the Hawaiian language, the word wai means water. Fresh water. When doubled, wai.wai, it means wealth, which traces its own roots to wellbeing. I didn't know a name existed for this wording practice until recently. It is, says the poet Mark Nepo, the ethic of wonder, "Simply and profoundly, things that matter are repeated as a way to bring our full attention to them, as a way to meet them. Such naming through listening is the beginning of prayer."
Wonder. Because with the nights lengthening right now, I feel it strongly: Millions of stars, the dreamy Milky Way. Because something like fresh water, it is a wonder, wealth.
Once in a while then it strikes me how recent it is that we humans rose evolutionarily. How recent, to be able to reflect on things like stars, water, words, wonder. There but for the tumbling fieriness of an asteroid wiping out nearly all creatures heavier than 44 pounds, 66 million years ago. There but for a fragile planet that formed over 4.5 billion years ago.
Our ways of thinking, communicating, our inventiveness (for exploitation or regeneration), we take them for granted, yet these capacities began to emerge just 70,000 years ago. Our language skill, sense of humor, envisioning, remembering, creating, querying:There but for a vulnerable nervous system, a consciousness hardly understood. A bleep.
No surprise that the world we barely notice in daily business is the world that brings us to our knees.
The scientist Rachel Carson lived an ethic of wonder, allowing her to transcend science as fact and find, "renewed excitement in living." Wonder was her medicine for modern life, for what she called our "sterile preoccupation" with our artificial stories. To be conscious of something vaster than ourselves and feel this interconnectedness.
Awe. Perspective. Reality. The gift of this wealth, which in its grace redeems. To fall in love with what is. To fall in love with wonder, whatever our call to wonder is. Fleeting, still, alive. "In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth," Carson wrote. It is in fact the story of us.
What comes up for you when you think about this ethic of wonder as an antidote for our occupation with our stories? An antidote, really, for when the busyness of our lives begins to seem too real? Love it if you drop me a line! I will respond.
Pair this with:
William Wordsworth: "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her."
And a Serbian Proverb: "Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."
water as wealth, an ethic of wonder
Thanks as always for choosing to read this email: I do not take it lightly. And so my intent is for these writings to serve as a compass (for all of us) to wake up, wisen up, show up. A mix of resources, links to articles, and quotess, a question to lean into, an invitation or an announcement exclusive for you as reader. It's an ongoing experiment: Your thoughts are welcome.Together we soar wider, and grow our impact for good 10x. With gratitude, sophia
