Occupied by Truth & Awe: Meeting the Moment

And the moment is: we are in the 10th month of what has felt like five years of life. So may we experience some truth & awe as antidote.

I spent an entire year on the road (almost 14 months to be exact) - and more consistently over the summer - flinging myself into the maw of jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring landscapes and communities, mostly in my beloved soulmate of a state, California. While these experiences were also unwittingly punctuated - and somewhat driven - by some chaos and catastrophe, I danced with the uncertainty of the times and the drumbeat of crises in the collective of the regions I visited, the country and my personal life. This reminded me again of something I’ve known but don’t always center: the power and necessity of awe to sustain our humanity and certainly to carry us through incredibly tough times. Years ago, I even briefly considered changing my thesis from Elemental Rewilding - how to live a rewilded life - to the examination and exaltation of awe and catharsis. 

If you are somewhat familiar with California geography, I’ve driven from Idyllwild to Arcata to camping in the Redwood Forest to Sacramento, to multiple trips to Monterey, Novato, weeks spent at Esalen in Big Sur, interspersed with long stays in Topanga every month and lots of loops again and again. Here I saw beauty and burn scars, grief and resilience co-existing so inspiringly, in every major quadrant of the state I ventured.

Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center, said in his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.” He also says, “Fun, like awe, is one of several self-transcendent states, a space of emotions that transport us out of our self-focused, threat-oriented, and status quo mindset to a realm where we connect to something larger than the self.”

We humans are colonized by microbes, by disease, by humor, by love, by multitudes, and I, for one, have long wanted to be filled in great measure by Awe and Truth. Especially now.

Maybe part of what the world needs now is hard-earned wisdom coupled with curiosity, not blind certainty. I’ve been a subscriber and follower of Substack for several years now, and I’ve been picturing sharing some work and musings on there for about as long - mainly to be of service, also to connect. Many things have taken me much more time than I hoped over the last few years - with my illnesses, with systems collapsing and a lot of days spent foggy in response. However, I hope you’ll keep visiting We Must Rewild Substack and consider subscribing at some point, though it’s still coming together. I’ll be adding more content and a new essay very soon, and I’ll share more about what community members can expect then.

This rewilding and reanimating the world is our affront to so much dehumanization and destruction. The devaluing so much that is sacred is primarily in agenda and rhetoric, not in the truths most of us hold yet the pain and devastation caused is real. When we are diligent in our remembering of deep connection to the world and each other, we push back and find the fortitude to do it. I’ll continue to show up and do all I can and provide resources for community.