I live in a largely aweless culture. Getting it, whatever it is, is most important ~ even getting "God" or getting "salvation" or getting "enlightened." Timeless joys are exchanged for passing pleasures. Yet, far better for me to end the day and say, "I tasted the Wonder," than to end the day and say, "I was successful" or "I was happy." The Sage knows what I say, most others have no way to begin to fathom the wisdom of Wonder or the bliss of Wonder. I lived too many years in the bland landscape of religious certainties that focused on right-believing and right-doing rather than joyful awe and confounding Mystery. I want to be confronted by the Nameless, daily, not just live among names. I became successful, to learn success offers little, but Grace all, but a Grace neither religious nor non-religious ~ not a grace some "God" gives, but Grace as an Intimate Expression of Life Itself. I prefer being astonished by Life to the comfortable confines of safe certainties. I do not want to be sheltered from the Light, I want to bathe in Its Rays. I want a "God" who shows me the final futility of even saying "God" is "God." I want to swim in the Depths, not merely move about on the surfaces. I want to be silenced by Amazement, so that Prayer arises as the inarticulate praise that never passes the lips, not even being formed by mind. To me, the moment Life no longer would be able to confront me and confound with Its grand and oft-bewildering, yes sacred, Presence, that would be the moment I would no longer be able rightly to say "I am alive." For me, to live is to be amazed, and the more in awe I am, the more I live. And, I pray, to die amazed at the wonder and glory of death itself, the same wonder and glory I have chosen to live and breathe in, as Grace, too, lives in and through me, breathing Itself to touch others with Itself through the humble dwelling of this living and dying body, housing this majestic, deathless Beauty. I live for Wonder, as I was born in Wonder.

may all beings feel loved and freely loving
may their suffering be transformed into bliss
and grace given to alleviate the suffering of others
that all may live in the fullness of love, joy, and peace.
Amen ~ We say joyfully It is so!

*Etymology of "wonder" is from the Online Etymology Dictionary.