Awaken the Senses

in search of awe

There are many mornings in Olympic Valley when the world feels newly made. When fog drifts low across the meadow and the first sunrays cut through the pines, turning every branch to gold if only for a moment. In that stillness, something wordless gathers us.

Whether standing barefoot on a boardwalk or passing people on a trail, we feel it together: a quiet awe, a sense of sublimity, that connects us beyond words.

Sociologist Émile Durkheim called this “collective effervescence,” the surge of shared spirit that rises when many hearts are stirred by the same moment. It’s what fills a morning with meaning: not just the wow of the moment, but the sense that we, too, are part of its awakening.

What is Awe?

"Awe," as defined by Dacher Keltner in his book AWE, the New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, "is a powerful emotion triggered by encountering something vast, mysterious, or beautiful that expands our perception of the world. This search can involve seeking new experiences, observing nature, or appreciating art to improve mental well-being and foster connection with others."

A Universal Emotion

Awe is the human response to the sublime... that quiet astonishment we feel when the world reveals its beauty in ways beyond words. Astronauts have a term for it. They call it the "Overview Effect."

In a July 30, 2021 TIME Magazine article by Jeffrey Kluger, The Overview Effect is described as "the change that occurs when [astronauts] see the world from above, as a place where borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen... The atmosphere reveals itself to be what it is: an impossibly thin onion skin that protects us from the killing void of space and yet appears penetrable, destructible."

From his flight on Blue Origin (October 2021) and in his memoir Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, William Shatner shared his radical shift in perspective with the Overview Effect: “It renews my spirit and reinforces my feeling that we really are all connected to each other in some indescribable way. Human beings, animals, the earth on which we tread, the air we breathe: we were all made for each other, if we could only grasp and remember that notion.”

Shatner felt small and a profound sadness in the face of the black silence of space, yet deeply connected when looking at Earth.

Nature’s moments carry their own overview effect, not just for astronauts and celebrity space travelers, but for anyone who slows down to look around.

We are all small next to a Juniper Tree, a sunset, and the vastness of space. But feeling that sense of awe reminds us we are part of something larger.

A Sense of Vastness and Wonder

If we look for it, we can feel it in the radiance of a sunrise or a moon reflecting on the water. We can follow it into the twisted branches of an ancient Juniper Tree. We can sense it in the stillness of geese in the morning mist. And we can encounter it under a stand of Golden Aspens. We can actively find awe if we slow down and become better noticers.

If we take the time to notice, we will sense how small we are, yet how deeply connected we are to something infinitely more grand.

Emotional and Enduring

Awe lingers like phosphorescent plankton in the tide. It glows long after the moment has passed. Once felt, that sense of awe becomes part of us. It changes the way we see, the way we listen, and the way we belong to the living world.

What Awe Wants From Us

When I get out and about in nature, I feel an unseen network that ties all living things together. This is where awe often begins - in the realization that what appears separate is, in truth, one. There's no better example of this than standing under an aspen grove.

The Unseen Connection

All those bright aspen groves are usually one great organism, one root system sending up thousands of stems. So when you see a shimmering stand like those in these photos, or anywhere else, you’re often looking at a single ancient being, breathing light through countless leaves.

In fact, the quaking aspen grove in Utah, called Pando, is one of the world's largest living organisms. Pando means “I spread” in Latin. It's a single living being, a massive root system of quaking aspens covering over 100 acres (!) in the Fishlake National Forest of Utah. The Pando grove contains around 47,000 genetically identical trees, all connected underground, growing and regenerating for thousands of years (some estimates say up to 80,000 years old).

When William Shatner looked back at Earth from space, he was overcome not by the stars, but by the fragile brilliance of our planet, "The pale blue dot," as Carl Sagan famously called it. The overview effect stirred in him both grief and wonder... grief for what we might lose, wonder for what still remains so much alive.

We don’t need to leave the ground to feel that same awakening. Standing right where we are, we too can glimpse what Shatner saw from way up there... the miracle of life held together by invisible threads of belonging, like the root system of the quaking aspens.

That feeling of awe is a call to action that we are not separate from this vastness, but a living part of it. And it's nudging us to be better stewards of our communities, to preserve, protect, and respect each other and the natural world around us.

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I’m Michael Kennedy, a resident of Olympic Valley, CA (in photo above). I’m a visual storyteller and I love exploring nature and getting lost along the way. I know we live in a world that demands our attention. I just want to say thank you for your attention. If you enjoyed this post, please share with a friend. For more photos and stories visit BlueWolfGallery.com.