Think back to a time when you were truly awe struck and try to remember not just what you witnessed, but the experience itself, the state of your emotional, spiritual and physical being at the moment of awe.
My last time was late winter, the first week in March of 2015 to be more precise, and I was in the woods cutting down trees for firewood. It was a brilliant cold day, with cloudless deep blue skies and very low humidity. The sort of day where the sun wears that unique winter hue, bright but not as sharp as a summer sun yet still strong enough to cast well defined contrasting shadows.
I had already selected a tree for felling and now stepped back to survey it. I wanted to determine how it would naturally fall so I would not be fighting a force greater than me. While backing away from the tree my eyes traveled up the trunk to take in the broad leaf-less canopy of the poplar. It was almost perfectly symmetrical, a truly magnificent tree.
As I shifted my body to change my perspective, suddenly I was struck with the stunning beauty of the tree's perfect canopy back lit by endless blue sky. I remember my mouth dropping open and a sound escaping from deep within, almost as if already formed before arriving at my vocal cords.
I don't know if I stood there for 30 seconds or ten minutes, for time stood still while I drank in the utterly beautiful perfection. I was filled with an inner joy and deep connection to all that was around me. I heard all, saw all, felt all. I was one with all.
And then it was over and I was back on Earth with an idling chain saw in one hand and a neck screaming at me to straighten. I placed the chain saw on the ground and slowly scanned the woods around me, desperately trying to understand what had just happened while wishing I could return. At that moment the only thing I was certain of was I could work no more that day and that tree would never be touched by me.
Please join me in reading The Mind Bending Science of Awe.
Cognitive Dissonance
