A00156 - Book of the Month for the Month of May 2023: Awe: The Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life: Some Preliminary Notes

"Awe is the motion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don't understand. Why would I recommend that you find happiness in an emotion that is so fleeting and evanescent?  A feeling so elusive that it resists simple description?  That requires the unexpected, and moves us toward mystery and the unknown rather than what is certain and easy?

"Because we can find awe anywhere  Because doing so doesn't require money or the burning of fossil fuels -- or even much time. .... Because we have a basic need for awe wired into our brains and bodies, finding awe is easy if we just take a moment and wonder.  Because all of us, no matter what our background, can find our own meaningful path to awe." Page xvi)

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"How does awe transform us? By quieting the nagging, self-critical, over-heating, status conscious voice of our self, or ego, and empowering us to collaborate, to open our mind to wonders, and to see the deep patterns of life."  (Page xx.)

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"Jane Goodall, a hero of mine, believed that chimpanzees feel awe and have a sense of spirituality grounded in a capacity Goodall describes as being amazed at things outside yourself."  (Page xxv.)

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"in teaching happiness for more than twenty years, I have seen how much health and well-being we gain by being amazed at things outside ourselves.  By finding awe.  From our first breath to our last, awe moves us to deepen our relations with the wonders of life and to marvel at the vast mysteries that are part of our fleeting time here, guided by this most human of emotions."  (Page xxvi.)

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It is daybreak here in Genoa, Nevada, and the sight of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada peaks fill me with awe.  I must sleep soon, but I can only imagine what wonders the day ahead will behold.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Genoa, Nevada

May 19, 2023

-----Original Message-----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Thu, May 4, 2023 7:07 am
Subject: Book of the Month for the Month of May 2023: Awe: The Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner

In response to my email concerning my unexpected reaction to visiting the Grotto of Massabielle at Lourdes, a friend of mine suggested that I read the book titled Awe: The Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner. 

https://www.amazon.com/Awe-Science-Everyday-Wonder-Transform/dp/1984879685/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1NJI4COVZJQEL&keywords=awe+dacher+keltner&qid=1683204343&sprefix=awe+%2Caps%2C261&sr=8-2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacher_Keltner

I purchased the book and began reading it this week.  Based upon what I have experienced, and what I have read, I believe that Awe is a book that should be read by all. Accordingly, for me, Awe: The Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life shall be my Book of the Month for the Month of May 2023.  You are welcome to read along with me and experience the everyday wonders that abound.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

Class of 1975 

-----Original Message-----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Fri, Apr 7, 2023 1:59 pm
Subject: A Day with Bernadette ... and the Lady

It has been an eventful day here at Lourdes. I went to the 9:30 am Good Friday mass. It was held in the open air on the plaza in front of the basilica. I suppose there may have been two to three hundred people there. They had a line of people in wheelchairs as well as many others who appeared to be ailing from one malady or another. After the end of the service, the people began to form a tiered grouping to take a photo of all those who attended. Those in wheelchairs were in the front while the more able bodied were in the back. I initially stayed away from the group, however, a man in the group saw me and beckoned me to come join the photo. Somewhere, in the digital universe, there now exists a photo of me in the back row of the attendees of the Good Friday mass at Lourdes on April 7, 2023. Wow!

After the photo, I went to the grotto of Massabielle where the apparitions of the Lady of Lourdes manifested for Bernadette. I walked into the cave and the touched the walls. Some of the walls were damp as though they had been weeping. After making the procession through the cave, I went to the area in front of the cave where there is seating. I sat for a while and prayed ... and then for some reason I began to cry.

I do not know why that happened. Indeed, I do not know why, while I am writing this, I have begun to cry again. I suppose this pilgrimage has been more than even I expected.

It is almost 11:00 pm now and I need to go out back to the grotto. I need to get some water for myself and for many others. I do not know if I will make it back here again. So I must take advantage of this opportunity to take a little bit of the miracle back with me.

Take care.

Peace, .

Everett "Skip" Jenkins