Awareness

Y’all know that calming exercise?
Name 4 things you see,
3 things you hear,
2 things you feel, 
1 thing you smell? 

When I visit my friends in South Carolina in June, I start the day with coffee on their front porch.

I see bouncing branches,
Playful squirrels,
Leaves catching the morning sun,
And a cat strutting across the street.

I hear finches and robins calling, “Good morning,” 
The hum of an air conditioner kick on,
And the pup beg to join me outside.

I feel the humid air and a light breeze cool my skin, and
The floorboards vibrate under my bare feet every time the pup drops his heavy bone.

I smell the coffee waking up my senses and my mind thinks,

What a beautifully calm way to enter the day. 

In July, I spent a week in Key Largo with fifteen high school students and two other chaperones, most of us strangers until we were thrust together at the airport, studying ethical leadership and coral reef restoration. The word that bubbled up for me throughout our time together was awareness. 

I continue volunteering with Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder each summer because I believe in the organization’s mission of curating opportunities for students to gain proximity with non-profit organizations around the world that demonstrate humility, moral imagination, moral courage, inclusivity, compassion, and a systems-oriented method. The goal of our work is raising the students’ awareness of what ethical leadership looks like by spending time with those doing the work in our world.

On our course, we spent time at Marine Lab, whose goal is “Marine science education for everyone.” We studied Marine Lab’s leadership in their community through championing education while learning about coral reef restoration. The wonder and awe that percolated during our time observing the tiniest of creatures—coral, sea slugs, and brittle stars—and their corresponding flora—mangroves, seagrass, and sea fans—is immeasurable. Our awareness of the depth and diversity of this underwater kingdom broadened our worldview well beyond the limited vision of our snorkel masks. We were now able to see just how precious and interconnected these tiny beings are to our lives as humans. 

And how often are we afforded the luxury of moving at creation’s speed, as opposed to digital speed, for almost a whole week?

Toward the end of the course, we went out to Deep Blue, a spot just on the other side of the border between us and the open ocean. Nothing but each other and the boat in sight, no matter which way we looked. All of a sudden we went from feeling very, very big to very, very (very) small. 

Our labs during the week included filtering microplastics from water samples, examining repercussions of irresponsible boating, cleaning up debris in mangroves along the intertidal zones, and looking at other human and natural variables that impact the marine ecosystems. Again, our awareness of our place and impact on our world was elevated.

Our students did not have cell phones on this trip. So, in alignment with their commitment, I stayed off socials, didn’t read my local paper online each morning, and hopped into my inbox to delete junk emails once every day or two, unplugging to the greatest degree in recent history. Around Day Five, I accidentally opened an email when I meant to delete it. Current events flooded my consciousness, and I became aware of exactly how unaware I had been of life outside our Marine Lab bubble. 

Is this what vacationing before smartphones and laptops was like? I hardly remember. But WOW, the realization that I had been generally unaware of the world for five whole days and more or less missed NOTHING that I couldn’t catch later or would change ten times anyway before I returned home (hello, tariffs) made me rethink my inputs. 

So this, friends, is where growing our little Christians came to mind. This summer, the Holy Spirit has been loud and proud with calls to “Look!” “Listen!” “Feel!” “Smell!” and even “Taste.” What opportunities are we creating, sharing, exposing, resting in, or even running interference from for our families? Either purposefully so or in our modeling? It seems to be more and more countercultural to cozy up in nature and live at creation-speed when the digital world all but demands our attention and allegiance. 

The paralysis of enormity that comes with following current events and trying to engage as a citizen leaves me begging for downtime when I stop thinking and just scroll a little. But to what end? How does time online strengthen my faith or my relationships with others? Does it increase my awareness of how Love created me and the call to go out and Love others first and most absolutely?

Most of us don’t have the luxury of 40 Days in the Wilderness with an unobstructed audience with the Holy Spirit and little to focus on but the preciousness of creation. Many don’t have the luxury of a solitary hour or even a quiet moment in the restroom, depending on your age and stage, but what we do have is choice. (And we’re not going to go the way we want to or the “right” way, or the “best” every time.) 

• Pause. We do have the choice to pick up our phones or connect in real life, to pray or hold stillness or get outside. 
• Breathe. We can control some of our calm and allow our awareness of the Holy Spirit to wash over us when we remember, when we raise our awareness of our actions. 
• Connect. Even those precious moments on our own. Pause, breathe, connect to self or the Holy Spirit. 

And the gift, even in those small moments, is a raised awareness of our self in the world, all beloved by our Creator, our God whose awareness and delight brought us into being for such a moment as this.