THE WONDER OF YOU
By Rich Hayes
Transcript of talk given at Unitarian Universalist Church of Pittsfield
May 16, 2010
I thought I’d start with what two well known authors had to say about You.
Dr. Suess said:
“Today you are you, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is You-er than You”
And then there is this from Shakespeare:
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god!
Some fun facts about You:
*Your heart will beat 40 million beats this year-and will probably beat about 3 billion times during the course of your life.
*Your lungs inhale over two million liters of air every day. The surface area of your lungs is approximately the same size as a tennis court.
*You are made up of about 75 trillion cells all cooperating to help make you “You.
*Each cell in your body has 6 to 8 feet of DNA.
*The total length of your circulatory system stretches 60,000 miles- more than twice the distance around the Earth.
* 2000 gallons of blood is pumped through these vessels every day.
* In the time it’s taken me to say this, over 50,000 of the cells in your body have died and been replaced with new cells!
*In the course of 7 years every cell in your body has been replaced-NOTHING REMAINS OF THE “YOU” OF 7 YEARS AGO!
Einstein said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Which way would you like to live it?
If you think about it-really think about it - you’ll realize you are a miracle! And so is everyone else.-as is everything else.
Walking, talking, breathing miracles, that’s what you & I are!
Do you see a miracle when you look at yourself? When you look at others?
It’s not a usual response is it?
Maybe we’re miracles who’ve lost our way-forgotten who we really are.
As miraculous as the human body is, there is something even more amazing: The spirit that animates the human body. That undefinable, ineffable sense of “I” and oh so much more!
What a remarkable thing it is! Its capabilities seem endless-infinite.
It is you. And it is truly a wonder.
Merriam-Webster’s definition of “wonder” is a miracle, and you fit the definition.
Christa Brelsford lost her right leg during the quake in Haiti-she graduated from Bard College of Simon’s Rock in 2007 and spoke at the 2010 commencement. This is what she said :
”I’m not any wiser. I just happened to survive based on human kindness. So what I think our job is is to try and harness that basic human kindness that shows up in charismatic tragedies like [the one in Haiti], and use it in smaller, less charismatic, less impressive tragedies that are still going on in the world today”.
Where did that kindness come from? And what about the resilience that was able to recognize it and want to give back?
The Spirit within the physicallity of this amazing biological unit you call “you”. Essential to growing that spirit is a connection to the Wonder around us.
How about your sense of wonder with life? How’s that been for you lately? Is it alive and well?
Do you remember when you were little and things seemed so new and fresh?
Do you remember the first time you saw a rainbow and it seemed like magic?
Or the first time you saw lightening bugs?
Or the first time you really understood how to do something like math or science or drive a car?
The first time you were up in some high place and were able to see for miles?
The first time you saw beauty and recognized it?
Do these things still happen for you?
Are you still able, on most days, to experience some wonder?
Do you have enough wonder in your life??
If not, then why not take time to re-connect with your natural sense of Wonder. And it is a natural sense. We are born with it. But we can lose touch over time. We get sidetracked and caught up in the busyness of day-to day life. We take things for granted and stop seeing the wonder of what is right here, right now.
Some people say all the electronic gadgets have only made things worse, causing more distraction. But I don’t know. There’s an awful lot of wonder there too.
I’m still struck with the miracle of my iPod Nano and the fact that something just a bit bigger than a book of matches has thousands of songs on it!!
The truth is, “wonder” is a choice.
We have to be present in order to experience it. To cultivate awareness and attention.
We have to be willing to see with fresh eyes.
To listen with new ears. To practice what Buddhists call “beginner’s mind”.
Don’t tell me you’re too old to do it. Wonder is not age specific.
When we’re young it is a very natural state. It can be revitalized and kept alive as we age.
Let me tell you about my friend Joe Pelkey. He was just shy of his 99th birthday when he died. We’d been friends for many years and met weekly to just sit and talk about whatever came up. Joe wondered all the time. He was fascinated with the creative process-where it comes from and how it gets expressed. If you went to visit Joe the first thing you noticed was the area he sat in: he was surrounded by books-shelves to his right and behind him, and a table always piled high with books by Erikson, Jung, Hesse, poetry by Eliot-magazines like the Buddhist Tricycle or the New Yorker. Joe never stopped wondering!
He told me that he saw life as a kind of “spiral” -but in reverse: Not running down like water into a drain, but rather opening out as it expanded upward. He held a sense of wonder for the process and was excited as to what the next leg of his journey would bring him.
When we meet someone who has qualities we admire we often will emulate them. They become a role model for us, and that is a good thing. Joe is a role model for me, as is Claire.
She is in her mid 90’s. She is confined to her bedroom. A bedroom that is filled with plants and books and photographs.
She lost her beloved sister and entire family in the holocaust. She barely escaped herself. She had been in a relocation camp and told me that that experience had taught her that in order to survive she needed to go beyond herself and help others. She also attributes that experience to her cultivation of a sense of wonder with all things. She told me it saved her.
Her bedroom has the huge windows and she spends her time looking out and marveling at the beauty of nature-in the trees and birds, the sky and the clouds. No matter what the weather is, it is amazing and something marvelous to behold. And my visits with her wind up uplifting me, even though I go there thinking I’m supposed to comfort her! Her connection to the sense of wonder all around her has helped her to not only heal deep wounds of loss, but to prepare her for her final letting go of this life with a profound sense of gratitude...and wonder!
Both of these people demonstrate qualities I hope to cultivate-especially if I have the good fortune to live as they have, into my 90’s.
Cultivating wonder takes practice and intention. But I will guarantee you this: If you make an effort everyday to see with new eyes, hear with fresh ears, and practice beginners mind, you will begin to notice amazing things that have been right here just waiting for you to see them! And you’ll wonder how you never saw them before! But no matter-you’ll see them now.
Emerson said, what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Connecting to the wonder of you can bring you to experience the wonder in you.
And that sense of wonder can make life so very much richer. A natural byproduct of wonder is gratitude, and gratitude leads to a greater sense of peace and happiness.
Remembering, that’s the key! We all know how to do this. We’ve only forgotten what we once knew. It’s time to remember, and rejoice.
After all, no one is “You-er than you”, and what a wonder that is!