Living with Strength and Kindliness

Wonder (awe) :

The ability to question, get curious, explore widely and pursue doggedly, answers, solutions, and opportunities, leading to innovative thinking and endless possibilities.

Do you ever get the feeling of being enamored, stunned by and besotted by the majesty of the night sky? Over the last few weeks we have had plenty of opportunity to feel a strong sense of awe about the profound beauty of our world.  About three weeks ago we had a pink moon and last week we had a solar eclipse; there has been a real light show in our sky.

I was reading this week about the infamous image – Pale Blue Dot. Some people describe this image as the most important photograph taken in the history of the world (see the image below). It was taken in 1977 by the NASA Voyager 1. Despite the Voyager only being given a five-year lifespan it has taken photographs of the world from space for over 40 years and has provided some stunning photographs of the entire solar system for the world to see.

A key, and interesting point about this photograph is that it was taken from a distance of four billion miles away, like… wow! What is clear to us from this image is the enormity of space and its profound darkness. However, if you look really closely, from the image of our planet (the pale blue dot), emanates  the most amazing beams of light… so strong in fact that they cut through the piercing darkness that surrounds it. Despite being 25,000 miles in circumference and with over seven billion people living on it, the Earth, in this image, appears to be no more than a speck of dust.  However, on a deeper level we could also say that this tiny speck of dust is part of a something truly awe-inspiring.

“That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

An American psychologist at the University of California once said that awe is a fundamental and incredibly instructive emotion.  He stated that awe turns us away from self absorption, attunes us to others, reminds us of our place in the world… which ultimately leads us to act differently, make better choices and look for ways to benefit the world, instead of just ourselves.

Choosing to rekindle your sense of awe will not just impact your own life but could have a lasting impact on the world around you.

When I worked in Kyabram at St. Augustine’s College, for a year in 2019, I was infatuated by the name given to the building project that was being undertaken at the time I was there. The building was named ‘The Place of Possibility’. I always felt like I was suitably inspired each time I said the name of the building or I was present in that building.  It was affectionately nicknamed POP.  The name has resonated with me.

The notion of a place of possibility holds me to a lovely experience of working in that school for a year but it also opens my eyes to the fact that the world is full of possibility, even though it might be a tiny speck in a much bigger system within the world. This just confirms for me that  the place of possibility is everywhere and it is present on a grand scale, much bigger than we even let ourselves imagine!

Kirrilee Westblade

** inspiration for the article taken from a book I am currently reading called ‘In Awe’ by John Leary.