Every year I spend a week at the beach. It’s a ritual that I cherish because after a week I feel renewed and refreshed, without fail, every time I go.
I just came back from a week at the beach. This year, something special happened. On Shabbat afternoon, I decided to go down to the sea. The sky was overcast, which usually means that we will experience a thunderstorm and have to rush out of the beach, but I decided to go anyway. I set up my chair, read a little bit, and then I felt a little breeze pushing the clouds away, and as the sun peeked from behind the clouds, I went in the water. I smelled the salty air, and felt the invigorating salty water surrounding me as the gentle waves allowed me to drift. The sea was calm, and as I floated I listened to the soft crash of the waves, and the distant rumble of thunder as the clouds moved away. I heard the young children shrieking with joy as they ran in and out of the water, the teens listening to music, the seagulls chirping their song. I saw a young pregnant woman lower herself gently onto a chair, parents holding on to a toddler who was exploring the waves with joy and curiosity, a young man paddleboarding with great skill, a family swimming together, an older man sharing his snacks with the birds, two women collecting shells. The shells were amazing. Some had many shades of black, others had colors that moved from dark maroon to light beige and then light brown, some big, some small, some rippled and some smooth. There were pieces of mother of pearl so luminous, reflecting the light of the sun, and fragments of conches that stimulated imagining how big and mighty they were before breaking into pieces as they tumbled to the shore. There were little snails in their shells, trying to hide back in the sand as they were washed onto the sand by the waves.
As I experienced this wonderful moment verse 5 from Psalm 92 came to mind: How grand are Your designs, O Eternal, and how deeply thoughtful—Mah gadlu ma’asseicha Havayah, me’od amku mahshevotecha.
I was filled with gratitude to God to be able to live this moment as I did. It is a gift when I can enjoy the beauty of this world and recognize all the blessings I have. It is a great feeling when I can be in awe and experience the wonder of God’s creation. Most of the time I feel rushed, and I bounce from thing to thing, obligation to obligation, and don’t let myself experience the fullness of God’s designs, that are so grand, so deep, and so thoughtful. My gratitude was both for having had that moment, and for recognizing God’s gift, for the awesome miracles that surround me on a daily basis. I know I cannot possibly live in a state of admiration every single minute of my life—otherwise I would not be able to describe my experience and share it with you. And I also know that this could only happen because I train myself to see and feel the divine nature of the things that surround me. It is a choice, one that does not tend to come naturally to me: I now choose to also see beauty and be awed by this world, instead of focusing only in the negative and difficult aspects of everything that surrounds me. There are so many things that must be repaired in the world, so many opportunities for each one of us to mend this broken world (to do tikkun olam).
If we do not train ourselves to stand in awe, to wonder, to live fueled by curiosity and filled with gratitude, we risk being overwhelmed by sadness, depression, and insecurity as we are bombarded daily by the inevitable ugly actions of human beings.
Training ourselves to be grateful and stand in awe of God’s creation requires only that we allow for the possibility of internalizing that which comes to us through our senses, and through the vehicle of memory. If by the end of your day you realize that you did not stop and experience wonder, search for the memory of one thing that happened during the day that brought you joy—maybe it was a delicious meal, a call from a friend, a much-anticipated email. Rejoice and celebrate the gift you received. Be grateful for something. And then find a way of amplifying goodness by sharing your gifts with others, helping them recognize the gifts they have. And the affirm: How grand are Your designs, O Eternal, and how deeply thoughtful—Mah gadlu ma’asseicha Havayah, me’od amku mahshevotecha.