Quick Wonder

Last night I was reminded/re-introduced to some of Herman Melville’s gorgeous, passionate language from Moby Dick.* Among the words that landed on my heart were these: “It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe!” How marvelous is that. “Quick wonder and awe.”

It comes at a time in the story when Ahab and his men are in the thick of the pursuit of the great whale. It’s a mad rush of action and fury and fear and – well, quick wonder and awe. But while things are wild and terrifying, I love that Ishmael is still present to the wonder and extraordinary nature of this moment in time.

And what if quick wonder is not just that crazy mad rush of wonder as their world is literally whirling, but what if it’s “quick” in the sense of being alive. An active wonder, a wonder that is not observed from afar but rather a wonder being lived right now. This is happening, right now, and I am part of it, and this is opening my heart, and I am really here, feeling this, living this, part of this, this quick wonder.

And might it be possible to be so very present to a moment that we ourselves become quick wonder? My life, my quickness, my being is part of a greater phenomenon.

Quick wonder.

I wonder.

Could we start a movement to be Quick Wonder? Present and open to the marvels of this Life?

I wonder.

* http://www.getswallowed.com/