Musings on amazement
I've been meditating a lot lately on these lines from Mary Oliver. Here, she seems to be calling us to the opposite of self-assurance, to take a step away from our own resourcefulness or capability. It's the view from the opposite side of our own competence or aptitude.
Perhaps it is a call to humility? To be amazed at something we might claim as a talent or skill. I noticed it a few evenings ago while watching the final concert featuring Tony Bennett, the last of the great crooners who brought us what is often called "The Great American Songbook." Bennett is the last in a line of singers that included the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin. Sinatra, himself, once said, "For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business." Now that's a compliment.
Here he is, 95 years old, singing with charm and energy just as he has for longer than I've been alive. The New York crowd was applauding, and Bennett stood with his arms outstretched, exclaiming, "Wow!" over and over again. His body frail, his mind fragmented by alzheimer's. Surely he has received that level of applause enough times to lose count, and yet here he stands:
The Bride of Amazement.
It humbled me, and I wept that someone with that voice, could still stand in awe of the love and respect shown by a crowd. More importantly, Bennett seemed to stand in awe of the music, itself, in awe of the rhyme, the rhythms, the world-class musicians who accompanied him. It was a wonder to behold.
What would it be like to approach each day like that, as a "bridegroom taking the world into my arms"? Anyone who has been to a wedding will know the moment the bride comes into view simply by looking at the face of the groom.
What if we approached life like that?
Think of what it would do: free us from pride and the need to succeed, win, or come out on top; cause joy to overflow because we couldn't contain the feeling of wonder and awe at the sound of a song, the sight of a painting, the success of a colleague; set us free from the precarious climb up the Ladder of Success.
To be the Bride of Amazement is a call see life and the world through a newer, cleaner, clearer, simpler lens. I want that lens. I want to cry at the sound and sight of beauty. I want to cheer others on. I want to stand in reverence of a sunrise, a bird's call, a newborn's tender cheek. And I want wonder to humble me, shape me.
There is so much more of which to stand in awe, so much more wonder in the world than we could ever grasp. It crowds out competition, throws off the exhaustion of needing to succeed, and calls us to wholeness, completeness.
May every day we live be a kind of "aisle" that we stand at the front of, searching the distance like a bridegroom, embracing the wonder.