This morning I looked to the sky to discern if a storm or rain might be coming. Through a portal in the dark skies came a bright burst of shimmering sunlight. Its effect was to inspire me with the brightness of the sun as it subsumed the gloom of darkness. David Abram in his book The Spell of the Sensuous explores this space of connection between humans and the universe. It is almost a spell that came over me, metaphoring the reign of light over darkness, the elevation of light that fills the void of darkness.
This experience led me to think about wellspring and how it works within humans. As with a literal wellspring, it needs a continuing source of flow in order to provide some kind of fountainhead accessible to all. The hydrogeologists can explain physical wellsprings.
Can any of us understand or explain the human wellspring – what forms it, feeds it, gives rise to its gushing?
In short, visceral emotion is one source of the mystical connection between natural beauty and human response. When the sunlight broke through the dark clouds, an internal circuit went off activating a neuronic response that produces a feeling within of hope and joy, a sense of well-being, that good prevails. This is not something we learn or can mimic, it is authentic resonance with the majesty of the sun as perhaps the ultimate symbol of hope, as its illuminating rays light up our environment and sustain our life and spirit.
How should we then live in a way that creates, maintains, and emanates our own wellspring bringing light and hope to those around us?
