Delight For Its Own Sake
Maybe I’m over-analyzing here, but I hear in Hoagland’s poem a grace-full invitation to wonder, delight, and presence for its own sake. Be present to what brings you delight simply because it brings you delight. Immerse yourself in the book or the coffee mug or the stir fry or the conversation or the quiet walk in the park or the rowdy evening bathing ritual with the kids simply for the joy it offers you at the “sheer miracle of life,” as Brian Doyle once described it.
Overcoming Familirritability
It is almost universal that spectacular things lose their power through familiarity. Like the second time I went to the Grand Canyon and thought, “Huh, I remembered it being bigger.” Familiarity often breeds, if not contempt, a kind of irritation—either with the familiar thing, or with the wonder and awe of others who are beholding it for the first time. We might call this irritation by way of familiarity a case of familirritability.
We often speak of being desensitized to violence, but what about being desensitized to beauty and wonder, to the sheer miracle of life itself?
Learning From Sea Glass
The rush of delight when your eye catches a glint of blue or green in the sand. The way my eyes are learning to differentiate glass from colored rocks and mussel shells. The shared delight of showing each other the piece we just found. It serves no other purpose than infusing our walks with joy, of lifting our spirits, of opening our eyes to the presence of beauty and light and the myriad gifts lying in wait at our feet.
Sabbath is a Raqi’a in Time
On the second day of creation in Genesis 1, God spoke into the chaotic waters and created a raqi’a. Traditionally translated as “firmament” or “dome,” the raqi’a is essentially a boundary holding the waters at bay. With the raqi’a God created a protected area—a clearing—in the center of the chaos, which created the conditions within which life could flourish.
The Sabbath is a raqi’a in time.