We are miracles we need to delve into. Those who stop to wonder and ask life what it is trying to divulge, are attuned to an awareness that looks beyond a given situation. Shernaz takes us into the amazing world of wonder, in the weekly column, exclusively in Different Truths.

The first apple that impacted the world of science is said to have fallen on Sir Isaac Newton. It honed his curiosity and marvelling at the phenomenon with childlike inquisitiveness the mathematician and physicist went on to discover gravity.  We are lucky that his sense of wonder had not been killed by the surfeit of knowledge.

Awed wonder was what we gazed with at everything, as kids. We delighted in flowers, paper boats, insects, rain…were thrilled at the magic our coloured scribbles created, shrieked and laughed with gleeful surprise as soap bubbles became rainbows within our reach! Life was a daily goody bag of new, incredible discoveries. Grown-up, we waylay the ability to participate in and celebrate our surroundings and so miss out on the miraculous revelations of the universe, at each bend in life. Few of us pause to speculate and be mesmerised by the splendour and magnificence around us. There is an eternally marvellous time that we can peruse at leisure and derive infinite pleasure and wisdom from but we shut our eyes to it.

The ephemeral beauty of the rainbow does not astound now because we stretch ourselves thin to attain the proverbial pot of gold at the end of imaginary rainbows. We have stabbed wonder so, that William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence are not portentous anymore; their significance is invalidated in pompous adult minds; we do not “see the World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower”, nor “Hold Infinity in the palm of (y)our hand And Eternity in an hour.” As we slowly transit from childhood into adulthood we imperceptibly nudge out the mystery of life, the sense of wonder and cease to look beyond the ordinary; all we need is a focused beam of childlike interest and the mundane will light up as the magical. We must see with our whole being to uncover the remarkable in the ordinary. Overlooking the obvious means missing out on the mystery hidden in its depths.  We need purposeful vision (or the enchanted eyes of childhood), not fascinating landscapes, to decipher the beauty at every turn of life.

Like scientists, poets and artists all of us should keep alive our sense of amazement with sharp perception and the thrill of anticipating miracles in the familiar. Their appreciation is heightened and imagination nurtured by the absolutely wondrous mysteries of the cosmos and the underlying unity of all creation even as they grasp the futility of mindless destruction. A relentless sense of mystery, the agonising tug of its intensity is what gives birth to scientific discoveries and the creation of true art.

Albert Einstein’s wisdom seems lost on us: “The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain, children, all our lives.”  In our rush to become adults, the trail to truth and beauty disappears under the dust kicked up by our scuffle for things of lesser magnitude. Adulthood becomes a den of worries in which we hole ourselves up. A need to be in control of our lives and the future overrides our innate sense of amazement. The sudden, unexpected turns and twists of life scare us. We need assurances in our careers, relationships, finances and life in general, while its magic stays forgotten on the back burner. We must stay open to what life brings us and wonder questioningly at it rather than be bogged down by the pitiful ‘Why me?’ Coming from a place of wonder rather than one of fear and disappointment will open up the door to solutions from within, from a place of insight.

We ourselves are miracles we need to delve into. Those who stop to wonder and ask life what it is trying to divulge, are attuned to an awareness that looks beyond a given situation. From that awareness arises a great generosity, love, and forgiveness which elevate them to a higher level of consciousness. They bring with them healing and share their unique selves with others, a state we can all rise to. In fact, if each of us can marvel at and realise our uniqueness we can bring great gifts to society from the remarkable treasure of wonders within us. When we agree to see our self that way, we allow life to open up through us and consequently the self-opens up to a higher knowledge, to a Higher Self that goes beyond physical intelligence and we are guided to demystifying life.

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. ~ Saint Augustine.

In Living Philosophies, Einstein informs us, “The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it is with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of true religiousness.”  We should embrace such religiousness because it instills reverence for the beauty, and spectacular grandeur of this amazing world; a world whose importance cannot be undermined. It means having deference, gratitude, appreciation and a deep reverence for all life; factors that will not let us indulge in aimless destruction. It is being perceptive to the oneness and the interdependence of everything in the cosmos and constantly striving towards its conservation. That is how imperative it is to re-kindle the sense of wonder in us if we have lost it. Staying rooted in ‘holy curiosity’ we may just be able to brush the fringes of wisdom and discover some rubbed off on us.

Art does not make social statements but contributes to society on a deeper, less tangible level. I feel that what we should get from art is a sense of wonder, of something beyond ourselves, that celebrates our ‘being’ here. ~ Trevor Bell

So let us give ourselves permission to bring back our sense of wonder to the forefront; permit ourselves the ‘time to stand and stare’ and through a new vision open up the portal to immense possibilities; to celebrate the great marvel each of us is and live life to its full potential.

Picture design Anumita Roy

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Shernaz Wadia

To Shernaz Wadia, reading and writing poems has been one of the means to embark on an inward journey. She hopes her words will bring peace, hope and light into dark corners. Her poems have been published in many e-journals and anthologies. She has published her own book of poems "Whispers of the Soul" and another titled "Tapestry Poetry - A Fusion of Two Minds" with her poetry partner Avril Meallem.

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