Have you ever noticed how your eyes open a bit wider when you are surprised? It is as if you had been asleep, merely day-dreaming or sleepwalking through some routine activity, and you hear your favorite tune on the radio, or look up from the puddles on the parking lot and see a rainbow, or the telephone rings and it’s the voice of an old friend, and all of a sudden you’re awake. Even an unwelcome surprise shakes us out of complacency and makes us come alive. We may not like it at first, but looking back, we can always recognize it as a gift. Humdrum equals deadness; surprise equals life. In fact, my favorite name for the One I worship in wonder – the only name that does not limit God – is Surprise.
Right this moment, as I remember spiritual giants I have been privileged to meet – Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, His Holiness the Dalai Lama – I can still feel the life energy they radiated. But how did they come by this vitality? There is no lack of surprises in this world, but such radiant aliveness is rare. What I observed was that these people were all profoundly grateful, and then I understood the secret.
Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise.
A surprise does not make us automatically alive. Aliveness is a matter of give-and-take, of response. If we allow surprise to merely baffle us, it will stun us and stunt our growth. Instead, every surprise is a challenge to trust in life and so to grow. Surprise is a seed. Gratefulness sprouts when we rise to the challenge of surprise. The great ones in the realm of Spirit are so intensely alive because they are so deeply grateful.
Gratefulness can be improved by practice. But where shall beginners begin? The obvious starting point is surprise. You will find that you can grow the seeds of gratefulness just by making room. If surprise happens when something unexpected shows up, let’s not expect anything at all. Let’s follow Alice Walker’s advice. “Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.”
To expect nothing may mean not taking for granted that your car will start when you turn the key. Try this and you will be surprised by a marvel of technology worthy of sincere gratitude. Or you may not be thrilled by your job, but if for a moment you can stop taking it for granted, you will taste the surprise of having a job at all, while millions are unemployed. If this makes you feel a flicker of gratefulness, you’ll be a little more joyful all day, a little more alive.
Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all.
Once we stop taking things for granted our own bodies become some of the most surprising things of all. It never ceases to amaze me that my body both produces and destroys 15 million red blood cells every second. Fifteen million! That’s nearly twice the census figure for New York City. I am told that the blood vessels in my body, if lined up end to end, would reach around the world. Yet my heart needs only one minute to pump my blood through this filigree network and back again. It has been doing so minute by minute, day by day, for the past 75 years and still keeps pumping away at 100,000 heartbeats every 24 hours. Obviously this is a matter of life and death for me, yet I have no idea how it works and it seems to work amazingly well in spite of my ignorance.
I do not know how my eyes adapt, yet when I chant by candlelight they are 100,000 times more sensitive to light than when I read outdoors on the porch at noon. I wouldn’t know how to give instructions to the 35 million digestive glands in my stomach for digesting one single strawberry; fortunately, they know how to do their job without my advice. When I think of this as I sit down to eat, my heart brims with gratefulness.
From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights.
In those moments, I can identify with the Psalmist who cried out in amazement, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Ps.139:14) From there it is only a small step to seeing the whole universe and every smallest part of it as surprising. From the humble starting point of daily surprises, the practice of gratefulness leads to these transcendent heights. Thomas Carlyle pointed to these peaks of spiritual awareness when he wrote, “Worship is transcendent wonder” – transcendent surprise.
This article first appeared in Spirituality and Health magazine, Winter 2002, pp. 34-37.
Awaken to Awe
What would it mean for you to create more moments of awe in your daily life? In this self-guided series, learn how the practice of grateful living can help you expand and deepen your experience of awe.
Br. David Steindl-Rast
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Brother David’s focus on the material body and its incredible functioning, all so that it can be a suitable home for the Spirit-Soul, is dear to me.
As a Essene Christian I am well aware that the Archangels Raphael, Michael, Gabrael, Urial, all work in coordination and ( with the material provided by Shamael ) to make this miracle happen even thou most humans never give it a second thought! And the orthodox sciences can’t claim to know !% of the mystery and yet the masters, such as Joshua Emanuel the Christ, of materialization and de-materialization of this “body” have proven, again and again, that it is within the Divine Plan that all Human Beings are able to do as they demonstrated.
What a BIG surprise it will be when children in the future will be told by their teachers that at one time in the past humans had lost touch with their abilities and had to be reminded that there physical bodies can be materialized completely by themselves and that the Archangels, the Lords of the Elements, are within them, should they require assistance!
On a more sober note.
Another point to consider wrt the functioning of the human body is the ‘Breath’. It is common practice among ‘New Age’ systems to promote ‘Breathing practices’. This is a promising sign but how many actually know much about what is involved?
Again, as an Essene Christian it is my duty to be aware that each breath involves 0.9 litres of blood coming into contact with 70 square metres of lung area. This was a big surprise to me to become aware of that for the first time! Just trying to visualize that cause a surprise that …or, as it is commonly said ….”took my breath away”.
Thank-you for sharing this beautiful essay! It was a great reminder to be present to the wonder and miracles present everywhere! In my morning meditation, I asked my Higher Self, “What do I need to know”? As various thoughts kept coming, it was upsetting me that I couldn’t quiet my mind. I then “heard”, ‘send love to your thoughts’. It was a surprise to ‘hear’ that, but it has helped me so much! We don’t know in what way we will be surprised and that makes life so wonderful!
Peace and blessings to all??