I asked for wonder

“I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And You gave it to me.”

These are the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel. I’ve been coming across his stuff quite a bit recently – in a book I’ve been reading about the Sabbath (more of that later), and also over at Living Wittily.

Today his words seem to be particularly appropriate – I’ve been considering and reflecting about the way that I observe and respond to the world around me. In recent weeks, I’ve been noticing things more keenly, and responding to them in different ways – photos, daft drawings, bits of poetry, and even some painting!

I’ve commented on aspects of this in some of my recent blogs – it’s like a kind of re-awakening of things that have lain dormant for a long time. Fish Wife was commenting on it the other day, with reference to some of my activities when I was at university – over twenty years ago.

Tonight, I started to read an anthology of Heschel’s material and I came across the quotation below, and it seemed to fit with what I was thinking and feeling. I am aware that much of this is of no interest to anyone except me – so call me self-indulgent – but it helps to write it down!

“We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Supreme grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight.”