What happens when we simply look, without naming what we see? In this episode of the Infinitely Precious podcast, James Henry continues the Inhabiting series with a reflection on inhabiting wonder. Wonder is the sense of awe that arrives before we name, explain, or capture an experience.
From a night sky with no light pollution to a pine tree outside his window, James explores how the instinct to name things can make us feel we’ve finished seeing them. He asks what it would be like to sit with the Mona Lisa, a sunset, or a morning rock from the garden without reaching for a label. He also asks why we so often photograph a moment instead of being in it.
James draws on Richard Rohr’s insight that mystery is not unknowable but infinitely knowable. He tells the story of a summer walk in the woods, where he realized that the cacophony of lawnmowers, birdsong, a chirping squirrel, and his own footsteps was a unique, irreplaceable, unrepeatable moment. He also returns to the Japanese art of kintsugi, whose golden repairs still fill him with wonder, and to Jesus’s invitation to become like children.
This episode is for anyone seeking a contemplative spiritual practice of presence, attention, and awe. It is especially for those who feel their days have become a backdrop, and who want the ordinary to feel strange and alive again. It closes with a simple invitation: spend a few moments with one ordinary thing as though it were your first time.
Remember, you are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift you already are.
In This Episode
- Why wonder happens before we name, describe, or explain what we encounter
- How the instinct to name things can make us feel we’ve “finished” seeing them
- The Portuguese word for looking (rooted in the word for “eye”) and what it means to simply look
- What Jesus may have meant by becoming like the least of these children: the ability to be in awe
- Why taking a photo, or a selfie, can keep us from the experience we’re trying to preserve
- How wonder restores the ordinary and makes familiar things alive again
- Richard Rohr’s teaching that mystery is not unknowable but infinitely knowable
- A woodland-walk story: a unique, irreplaceable, unrepeatable moment of sound
- Kintsugi as a picture of wonder, forgiveness, and being changed by repair
- A simple practice: spend a few moments with one ordinary thing as if for the first time
- How to support the Infinitely Precious podcast through the donation link on the website
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