a friend read this to me tonight. i thought it relevant to all of life.
“i honestly think in order to be a write, you have to learn to be reverent. if not, why are you writing? why are you here?
let’s think of reverence as awe, as presence in and openness to the world. the alternative is that we stultify, we shut down. think of those times when you’ve read prose or poetry that is presented in such a way that you have a fleeting sense of being startled by beauty or insight, by a glimpse into someone’s soul. all of a sudden everything seems to fit together or at least to have some meaning for a moment. this is our goal as writers, i think; to help others have thise sense of- please forgive me- wonder, or seeing things anew, things that can catch us off guard, that break in on our small, bordered worlds. when this happens, everything feels more spacious. try walking around with a child who’s going ’ wow, wow! look at that dirty dog! look at that burned-down building! look at that red sky!’ and the child points and you look, and you see, and you start going, ‘wow! look at that huge crazy hedge! look at that teeny little baby! look at that scary dark cloud!’ i think this is how we are supposed to be in the world- present and in awe.
there is ecstacy in paying attention.”
-bird by bird, anne lamott
