A writer with the appropriate name of Hope Reese had an intriguing piece in the New York Times the other day. It was about how important cultivating a ...
Fans and Canadian players celebrate Canada's second goal against Czechia in the gold-medal game at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Halifax on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. Canada won the game in overtime 3-2.
- Ryan TaplinA writer with the appropriate name of Hope Reese had an intriguing piece in the New York Times the other day.— “the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your understanding of the world” — is to our health and well-being. She tells us that scientists have discovered that these thrilling moments can slow a person’s heart rate, relieve indigestion, and deepen breathing. Reese also wrote that they are a good antidote to our collective narcissism. They quiet the critical voice in our head since, as mindfulness teacher Sharon Salzberg explained, awe is “the absence of self-preoccupation.”,” at least so it seems to me, no expert on health and well-being, just someone like you who happens to be alive in this time and place and can look around. Evidence that we are connected to something bigger than ourselves, that surprise awaits us at every turn, and that mysteries exist beyond our feeble understanding of things, are everywhere: in the transcendent beauty of Connor Bedard’s “what did we just see” overtime goal against Slovakia the other night, but also in the indomitable collective will of the Ukraine people, some of them now living resolutely among us, who have repelled Russia at every turn. We are gape-mouthed in wonder over what happens when Ashley MacIsaac puts bow to fiddle, or Kate Beaton pencil to paper. It makes us feel that there is hope for this world to know that despite all he has endured, Roméo Dallaire continues his work from his Halifax base against the recruitment and use of child soldiers. We lower our heads unworthily when we hear of those who keep the soup kitchens running, who look after the unfortunates who have fallen by the wayside, and who provide shelter and solace for whoever needs it.Natural wondersThe fossil cliffs of Joggins, just named among the world’s first 100 Geological Heritage Sites, where the layers of stratum protruding from the Earth underscore the immenseness of time and the trivial role we have played in it.And the sunrises and sunsets, which, and please correct me if I am wrong, have recently taken on a pinkish, dramatic hue that I don’t remember. I am new to the countryside, so seeing a snapping turtle, like something prehistoric, make its way towards a pond, finding some bear scat near the backdoor, noticing that a great white shark has just pinged off a nearby beach or hearing coyotes howling at the moon, thrills me as much as if I was a Cro-Magnon man. It turns out that our underwater retirement home for beluga and orca whales who once worked in marine parks will not, as was hoped, be up and running sometime in 2023. Yet, just knowing that sometime soon a whale sanctuary project, as large as 50 football fields, will exist along our rugged eastern shore is enough to make me stop what I am doing for a second to marvel — as does the recent news that nine right whale calves have been spotted in the waters off of Nova Scotia, a hopeful sign for the endangered mammals, and for mankind.The more often we experience that kind of wonder, the experts tell us, the better our lives are. Doing things with others, we know, can elevate a moment to something magical. These types of opportunities, even in the time of COVID, even with mainstream religious attendance falling, abound in a place as communal as Nova Scotia. I plan to do more of that, in musical venues, in the karate dojo — really whenever the opportunity presents itself — because even when standing or sitting silent, there is power in numbers of people aligned to common purpose. It is, let us face it, hard to think that you are the centre of the universe when doing something that refutes such a belief. This notion is memorably expressed in the awe-inspiring movie The Banshees of Inisherin in which Colm , a brooding violin composer, tells his donkey-loving friend Pádraic that their friendship is over because he must devote every remaining second to creating art that endures, like his idol Mozart.What I am talking about here something else, is that awe is good for us, and that, as Reese, along with a number of scientific studies, point out, it doesn’t take a monumental event for us to experience it. We can find wonder in the microscopic as well as the grand. Regularly, my SaltWire colleagues introduce you to the kindness of strangers, those people who do things for others with no hope of any personal benefit. I do not know exactly why, but the knowledge that good people like those walk among us somehow expands the soul. It's awe-inspiring. It's wonderful.SaltWire Network welcomes letters on matters of public interest for publication. All letters must be accompanied by the author’s name, address and telephone number so that they can be verified. Letters may be subject to editing. The views expressed in letters to the editor in this publication and on SaltWire.com are those of the authors, and do not reflect the opinions or views of SaltWire Network or its Publisher. SaltWire Network will not publish letters that are defamatory, or that denigrate individuals or groups based on race, creed, colour or sexual orientation. Anonymous, pen-named, third-party or open letters will not be published. 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