It is a cold, wintry day as I tramp into the nearby forest. A misty rain sweeps through the trees awakening fir, cedar, ivy, moss, fern, and lichen. Gaia proliferates in radiant shades of green. Crow and raven are ever-present and squirrel scurries to and fro. I walk along the footpath that leads me in the direction of Grandmother Cedar. The mist kisses my face and I feel very much alive and welcome. Gratitude pervades my awareness. I reflect on how privileged I have been to have so many firsthand experiences both in the forest and at the sea. The effervescence of living systems has had a knowing influence throughout my lifelong journey. Gaia has been good to me.
Like the stars above, I am grateful to all the individuals and events that “seemed” to appear in my life at precisely the right time to help me set my sails and navigate the night sky. They influenced the driving question that arose for me, the one that I have responded to for the last 40 years: What contexts and processes in education might liberate teachers and learners so that they become catalysts for the new human – one whose integral relationship with Gaia is bound by right-action and love?
I keep wondering about the source of gratitude. Like consciousness itself, gratitude could not have dropped in with humans. It is a derivative of cosmic evolution. I play with the notion that Gaia herself is grateful for the energy it receives from the Sun to sustain itself. And this energy is pure radiance.
In the beginning, the first particles coalesced into hydrogen. As the intensity of this swirling mass increased in its vastness, hydrogen began to fuse into helium releasing the Universe’s initial radiance— the light and heat that would make the heavens glow and allow for the birth of all the elements that filled universe. Cosmologist Brian Swimme says “Every being you encounter contains 13.8 billion years of radiance compressed into it.”[ii] I see and feel it when I am with forest beings – especially at this time of year in the Pacific Northwest rainforest when the trees and plants are radiant green. I see and feel it when I am at the seaside observing sunrise and sunset or the full moon reflecting over the surface of the waters. Radiance permeates the Gaian landscape and sometimes can be experienced between humans as we enter into perceiving each other from eye to eye and hand to hand.
So, is there a relationship between gratitude and radiance?
When people like the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa become attuned to, and at peace with, the Universal in all its faces, they transcend the typical human experience of living. Being in tune with this Source gives them a luminescence that makes them appear lighter and allows you to see an indescribable physical light emanating from them. It feels very good to be in their presence. Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddha, and Jesus were all expressions of radiance. In listening to Baba Ram Dass and being with him in person, I could see and feel the radiance. Tradition doesn’t matter; connection does. In my own life, Maria Montessori’s son and grandson had it, so did Father Divine, as did Robert Muller. With my cosmic love, Marsha, I felt it eyes to eyes, heart to heart, and soul to soul.
Swimme asks: What do we see when we look into another’s eyes? Not at the surface level as empirical details. What is flowing (radiating) out of the eyes is the essence of the person, the fullness of the person. The light itself is the flow of emotion. (Swimme, B. Powers of the universe: Episode 11, Radiance. )
And in that flow of emotion, I see gratitude. What I have noticed in my own life is that when I am with such radiant people, I feel in my heart the gratitude that emanates from their eyes.
For me, gratitude is a spiritual expression of profound recognition that is much deeper than appreciation and thankfulness. In Louie Schwartzberg’s TED Talk, “Nature, Beauty and Gratitude”[iv], he poses that “when we are gobsmacked by a natural scene or event,” we often respond by saying:
“Oh, my God.” The “Oh” means it caught your attention; the “my” means it connects with something deep within your soul; and “God” is the personal journey we all want to be on, to be inspired, to feel like we are connected to the Universe that celebrates life. [Schwartzberg, L. (2012, November). Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. [Video]. TED Conferences.]
Schwartzberg goes on to explain that “80% of the information we receive comes through our eyes. . . . there is a story behind each face; it’s the story of their ancestors.” Perhaps there is an essence of cosmic grace that appears through radiance. From my perspective, ancestors are not limited to the human family, but stretch back through evolutionary time, to the trilobites that invented eyes some 500 million years ago, and even further back into deep time from whence we come. That essence is where gratefulness overflows into blessing.
Cosmic gratitude recognizes the spiritual significance of events and people that have contributed to the journey of the self towards the Self. It is born in the radiance that permeates the Universe, as it is a reflection of the grace that endows evolution. From our origins in the flaring forth through intergalactic phenomena and Earthly events, I see an unfolding of holarchies of gratitude. For most of my life, I have been exploring the multitude of events and experiences that have given us the privilege to appreciate the beauty of the Earth. I recall these words spoken by Brian Swimme during Marsha’s and my 2003 dialogue with him: “As an image for exploring Montessori education and the story of the Universe, you might think of part of your journey as releasing your bodies into responding directly to the intelligence that pervades the Earth, Gaia, and the Universe.” (Morgan, M. S. & Gang, P. S. (2003) Interview with Brian Swimme)
We humans have the potential for cosmic gratefulness – that level of gratitude that comprehends the miracle of evolutionary unfoldment. Here and now, I think about some of the events that contributed to the articulation of my driving question:
For the Divine timing of the Universe’s expansion 13.8 billion years ago, that would have resulted in a total collapse had the speed been a millisecond slower; or total randomness without differentiation if a millisecond faster, I offer gratitude.
For the fusion of three atoms of helium in the belly of star formation 12.9 billion years ago that gave rise to carbon, without which there would be no life, I offer gratitude.
For the formation of our supernova 4.6 billion years ago that became our ancestral home, and for that supernova’s capacity to create all the elements needed for life on the third planet that revolves around the Sun in our solar system, I offer gratitude.
For the formation of Saturn, whose gravity field tugged on Jupiter just enough, preventing it from moving closer to the Sun and devouring the inner planets, including Earth, I give gratitude.
For the Mars-sized planetesimal that collided with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago and created the moon, I offer gratitude. Without the moon, Earth would have evolved with a wobbly vertical axis, and life as we know it would not have been possible.
For the cyanobacteria, Earth’s first photosynthetic beings, 3 billion years ago, and the eventual formation of a biosphere that created a unitary living planet – Gaia, I offer gratitude.
For our ancestors, the great hominids of the past that learned to survive as Earth’s climate shifted and their forest homes disappeared, I offer gratitude for their evolutionary journey that gave birth to culture: language, mathematics, music, and art.
For all of those people in my life – those radiant beings who touched my soul and opened doorways to educating for right-action and love, I offer gratitude.