Botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer recognized that, “The written word cuts off our sensing of the world—if we can’t put words to ‘sweet smelling flower’ we dismiss them. We must come to know the land and beings without words—words get in the way.”
Have you ever had an experience in which there were no words that could accurately describe what your human spirit was perceiving? If you’ve ever hiked among towering mountain peaks, watched a magically-colored hummingbird interact with a flower, locked eyes with an eagle, or been close enough to a whale to hear it breathe—there are no words. “Amazing,” “cool,” “awesome” are never quite enough.
Our universe is full of incredible, awe inspiring beauty that leaves us speechless and wondering about the laws that work outside of time and space, and their ability to create a world that can only be described as imbued with ‘a sense of the sacred.’ We realize we are part of something greater than ourselves.
In those moments, when we try to describe what we perceive, we miss out on the world itself and its possibilities.
Words are vehicles that help us to express ourselves, and, at the same time, they influence and determine our sensing experiences as they are interpreted by our minds. Words work to build from an invisible world of substance, pulling threads from the invisible world so that images can manifest in the visible world. Yet, the words in our language limit our ability to describe and comprehend our universe. They distract us from experiencing the new—which is directly in front of us.
Our minds, through our sense faculties, provide us with a ‘sense,’— an understanding, of a phenomenon. In trying to put words to the experience, its true essence, a fresh disclosure of meaning from the very depths of the phenomenon, is often lost, and the life within nature is deadened. Ecologist and philosopher David Abram confirms, “Words do not speak about the world; rather they speak to the world.” When this occurs, nature withdraws from us, and sensory participation with the landscape around us remains silent, insignificant, and without consciousness, furthering doubts and mistrust in our sensory abilities to provide us with credible information.
It is important that when we perceive nature we don’t let our reasoning mind’s use of words shape and decide our experience. As we immerse ourselves into a living experience, we must find ourselves freely diving into the waters of our sensory world, and listen, watch, and perceive the intrinsic qualities of nature through its own language, its own voice, inflections, cries, gestures, and creativity. We need to see the world with wonder, expanse, and color, as children do, free from preexisting influences.
And, when we do finally put words to our perceptions as we encounter and engage with the world, may our words carry truth and completeness, be vividly alive, summoned from our hearts, visually poetic, powerfully expressive in intimate detail, and reach into and capture the deep essence of life of our intelligent, animate, natural world.
We live within a world whose deeper dimensions are invisible to our physical senses. Yet other faculties reveal the hidden, creating a way to our souls. Beauty—the beauty in nature, the beauty of the vast starry night sky, beauty for nothing more than beauty’s sake—frees our spirits, minds, passions, and senses.
In this freedom we ask questions. The resounding effects elicit a sense of wonder at the unknowable, mysterious, and divine qualities of life. We lose ourselves in wonder and awe and the moment becomes transcendent. These moments are timeless, they are beyond words. We become wholly immersed within nature.
Wonder and awe are the first steps to revelation and knowledge. To perceive beauty that has no functional purpose invites curiosity. It evokes a certain way of seeing and awareness that leads to universal truths, self-inquiry, and imaginative potential. We reawaken our sensitivity towards nature.
Free yourself to communicate using words that establish a new and eternal kind of influence over yourself and another person’s mind, that awaken an ecological consciousness that contributes to lifestyles and activities that preserve earth, her ecosystems, and all species of life.
Breathtaking moments of awe are not just for artists and authors. Next time you encounter a moment of indescribable beauty, when the awe-inspiring mysteries of nature grip your heart—moments accompanied by goose bumps, moments when your heart races, moments of dynamic feelings of connectedness to life itself—when you can’t put your finger on the right word to capture the feeling—stop! Let that moment silently awaken your mind and spirit to the sacredness of this breathtaking universe. Let that moment inspire you. And prepare to be astonished!
So, I ask you: What did you see today that left you overcome with wonder?
