Even as a child, before I could imagine death, I sensed that the force I thrilled to in thunderstorms could crush me. Now, of course, I know that everything I make, everything I love, everything I am will eventually be scattered like the sand of the mandala. My wonder has always been clouded by fear. The word that comes closest to embracing the dread as well as the reverence, the shadow side as well as the light, is awe. The passages in my life that evoke this rapturous, fearful, bewildering emotion seem to me the ones worth recalling.

Scott Russell Sanders in A Private History of Awe by Scott Russell Sanders

 

To Practice This Thought:
Reflect upon the sometimes dreadful companions of reverence. When have you been influenced by emotions of reverent fear, wonder, and awe? What inner or outer resources have you carried with you from those times?

 

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