I’ve been holding a friend gently hostage with my thoughts/musings/fascination with stardust, presence, consolations, words, meanings, wonder, and connection. It has been a season of personal and professional discovery, and it has made me brave and tender at the same time. I kind of like being brave and tender at the same time, so I am going to try to post some things here – you know, on the BLOG I created – to maybe release some of my grip.
If I had to pick a theme for this year, it would be “joy, wonder, and awe.” If you look back at my post in March, I was talking about it then. Today, we are releasing Jones Valley Teaching Farm’s Impact Report and it should be no surprise that “joy, wonder, and awe” make an appearance.
I completely understand (and agree) that it is hard to talk about “joy, wonder, and awe” at times when the world feels too big to comprehend and I guess that’s why we must talk about it. If we decide that “joy, wonder, and awe” can’t exist in the presence of all that can be so very wrong, how do we make sense of the things we do see that are so very right?
I guess I’ve been digging my feet firmly in the ground waving my own “joy, wonder, and awe” flag. It’s a testimony of sorts – things I have seen, feelings I have felt, experiences I’ve had, and the hopes I have for this world.
Here is Jones Valley Teaching Farm’s version of “joy, wonder, and awe.” I hope you feel inspired by it and I hope you discover words that fill you up like these words did me.
I’ll leave you with another word: “gratitude.” (as defined by David Whyte in his book, “Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words.”)
“Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. Gratitude is the understanding that many millions of things come together and mesh together in order for us to take even one more breath of air, that the underlying gift of life and incarnation as a living, participating, human being is a privilege; that we are miraculously, part of something, rather than nothing.”
With SO much gratitude for being part of something with you,
Amanda
foodrevival 