April:  Awe

The trilliums are out in their usual spots. Seeing them pop up at the beginning of spring feels reliable and surprising all at once. We count them on the forest trail on my parents’ property, excited when one of us has found one everyone else hasn’t seen yet. A dependable sign of spring, of the season shifting.

Bright green nettles blanket the forest floor and ferns are starting to unfurl, the sword ferns with their fiddleheads that look more like elephant trunks and the bracken ferns popping up tall like little trees emerging from the ground. I look at the roadside and get excited thinking about it covered in daisies and foxgloves, not because I want time to speed up to that point in the season, but because I want to savor in waiting for them. 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately how small things create big things. Tiny molecules make up a human. Droplets of water make up an ocean. Single leaves make up a verdant tree. On the human level, the same is true. Everyday actions make up a life. Small practices over time contribute to a larger routine. Snippets of conversations build into friendships.

We’re so often focused on the big things we forget to pay attention to the smaller details. Which means that we inevitably forget to pay attention to the building blocks that shape our lives, and the world around us. 



A stunning landscape can be awe-inspiring, but I am equally fascinated by looking at a piece of lichen up close and seeing all the shapes and ridges. We need awe in our lives. We probably all know the sensation of awe, but exactly what is it? Psychologist Ethan Kross defines it as "the wonder we feel when we encounter something powerful that we can’t easily explain.”

We need that feeling for all kinds of reasons. It makes us feel better, it humbles us, it makes us more generous and kind, and can help us to think more critically. Even scientists who experience awe, beauty, and wonder in their work have better job satisfaction. It’s perhaps no surprise that this complex emotion is associated with creativity too. Awe welcomes us to step out of the box, envision something different. It can be a catalyst for new ideas, and the openness that's required for welcoming in inspiration. 

Most of us can probably identify with the awe we experience standing in front of a beautiful view, or a colorful sunset. There’s a feeling of vastness, of something that’s far beyond ourselves. But while the big moments of we are noteworthy, we can find them in smaller moments. We can work at cultivating more awe too. 

Because there is beauty and wonder on the tiniest of scales. The way the shadow of a plant hits the wall when the sun comes through the window. The curve of a branch. The petals of a single cherry blossom. The moss hugging the trunk of a tree. 

It makes me think of the creative process. So often we’re focused on the “lighting bolt of inspiration” the big “aha” moment that we ignore all the small investments that are essential for creative process in the first place. If we wait around for the lighting bolt of inspiration, it may never come. Just like if we wait for awe in the form of a grandiose view in hard-to-get place we might miss all the smaller joys, beauties, and surprises that weave together the fabric of our everyday lives. 

“Awe can well be one of the energy sources for the ten thousand mingled rays of the suns of imagination in each of us,” writes Emily Willingham. We don’t need the brightest or the biggest moment, we need attention to the present moment. To awaken ourselves to what’s around us, to pay attention in ways we have never done before.



This month, create space for awe, in small ways and big ways. Count trilliums. Look at cherry blossoms. Watch spring unfurl. Go on "awe walks." Stare at the clouds.

Allow a sense of awe and wonder to humble and open you. Allow it to create a little softness, a sense of gratitude. That’s the space where creativity will unfold.

-Anna

ps: Are you in the PNW area? I'm leading a bike and art trip in May in the San Juan Islands and there are a couple of spots left. You have to be able to get yourself to the Anacortes ferry and after that everything is covered. If you're interested in taking part, you can use the code anna-b_10 for 10% off.

pps: In my monthly Big Cartel column I wrote about ritual and creativity.