We got a dog because I thought my husband and I needed to learn something. I wasn’t sure what that was, but I said to my husband one day that I thought we would be better human beings if we had a dog. I think what I wanted was a way to be regularly in touch with a non-human, other than plants, in my day-to-day life. I wanted to engage and learn from the living non-human world. So we got a dog. Now when I look into the eyes of our dog Molly, I see a sentient being there. I learned recently that in Hawaii, the name for a person who has a dog is Kahu. It means guardian or caretaker. The dog is not property, it is not owned, instead it is a precious gift to look after. I see a soul in Molly. I see a friend and companion. It’s a daily reminder for me to be a good caretaker of all nature – humans, non-humans, plants and earth.
This connection I feel towards Molly is something that animal lover and anthropologist Jane Goodall spoke about frequently. And she connected this feeling to a sense of awe. Goodall was a champion for animal welfare and believed that animals have similar or even the same traits as human begins. In a classic videoclip that she filmed once of a gorilla dancing merrily around a waterfall, she says in the video that they often do this as an expression of awe. She says they also move about joyfully during storms and heavy rain. If you watch the clip, you see a gorilla jumping, swinging on vines and thoroughly enjoying itself in the face of a gushing waterfall. It seems like the gorilla is experiencing pure joy, as I did when I watched the clip. Goodall says, “Why wouldn’t they also have feelings of some kind of spirituality – which is really being amazed at things outside yourself?”
When we are amazed at something wonder-ful, outside of ourselves, we are experiencing awe and even spirituality. And the non-human world can also experience awe.
Goodall not only believes that awe is linked with spirituality but also that animals can experience this spirituality. So often I experience awe and transcendence when I look into the eyes of my dog, but Molly is also capable of experiencing awe and spirituality in her way. I’m still working out how. Or maybe I don’t need to work it our at all. If I am attentive to this, then perhaps I could have a deeper and more meaningful reciprocal relationship or connection with Molly. She is an independent being. We are both conscious, separate but dependent. In a sense, we are the same and can experience the same thing. What does it look like to listen to her so that I might hear what she has to say? How is “nature” speaking to us? And most importantly, are we listening? This space can be a habitat for the numinous, that Quiet Presence, the transcendent, especially if we engage in a reciprocal relationship with what’s around us.
Author Thomas Moore said that an “enchanted life” is about being overwhelmed by some “haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, place or person.” What would happen if we drew nearer to the things that elicit awe in us and we bent towards them to listen to their voices?
Dacher Keltner writing about the science of awe, mentions that during episodes of awe, mysteriously, we might have “an awareness of being seen”. Even though this sounds strange, I resonate with this. I’ve had moments of sitting under the covering of majestic tress, and experiencing a reciprocal encounter. I have felt a welcome, generosity and warmth coming from trees. I have also felt seen or known and sensed trees reaching out to me to hold my hand. So often for me, it isn’t simply a feeling of wonder, there is also a sense of those trees “seeing” me.
It makes me wonder that awe experiences are not purely about seeking a blissful state – so often we hear about “awe-chasers” in the way that a consumer might seek out a product for their entertainment or self-improvement. Awe can be an opportunity to engage in a reciprocal relationship. We pay attention to the “soul” or “spirit” reaching out to us from those spaces. As we explore what this reciprocity looks like, we can open ourselves to the numinous and participate with all of nature that is in and around us.
Rev. Dr Karina Kreminski, Mission Catalyst – Formation and Fresh Expressions, Uniting Mission and Education. Karina also blogs at An Ordinary Mystic.
