Relish, Delight and Wonder at the Reality We Live In

Our inner and outer senses play an important role in living a full human existence. Babies in their first months of life largely ‘learn’ through their senses. Adults have a tendency to rely overly on their intellect when searching for truth. As a consequence, we fail to draw on the enrichment that a keen awareness of the senses offers. For some, the latter can be missing yet not missed. Living life to the full is more likely when one is fully rooted in the everyday world that we find ourselves in, while using both rational and sensory abilities. If we desire to live at greater depth, then attention to our senses is essential. In other words, we need to create moments when we consciously just ‘stand and stare, listen and feel, smell and taste’.
Incidents in our lives are often lived automatically as opposed to consciously. In certain activities and circumstances, that has to be so. For example, when driving the car, we cannot be conscious of every move we make with the brake or steering wheel. However, we do need moments, hopefully several daily, when we deliberately allow ourselves to relish, delight in and wonder at the concrete reality we actually live in. Examples could be the following: noting the sounds around one in a busy street, the view from an office window, the texture and/or flavour of the food we are eating, the inner beauty of the person I am conversing with as well as acknowledging the beauty of who I am. In summary, we need to allow our inner and outer sensing worlds to nourish us through the ordinary moments as well as the more extraordinary ones. Hidden moments can prove to be the gems that make life worthwhile, maybe even ‘wonder-filled’. Catherine McCann, Spirituality and the Senses: Living Life to the Full