Amazement: Reclaiming the Brilliance of Wonder (eBook)

The word would be spoken into the air. I honestly thought she was messing with me. How could a word mean what it did? How could a word sound so beautiful? Those would be the first moments of hearing “Mangaliso.” The sound would fill the air. I would make my South African friend repeat it dozens of times. I would record her utterance.

In those moments, I had not a clue of the movement that was being birthed. In those moments, I didn’t realize that decades of work and a lifetime of living would be woven together in such an immense way. In those moments, it was just simply and profoundly about one word.

I had had a sensation. My gut was telling me that there was an African word that would mean something like childlikeness. What I did next changed everything. Not just for me but for hundreds, soon to be thousands and beyond. I had a feeling. I sat with it. I looked at my friend. I spoke up. I asked a question. I didn’t have the answer. I acknowledged that. I trusted. I hoped. I listened. “Mims, there isn’t a word for childlikeness. That translates more in a phrase. But when I think of this, I think Mangaliso.” There you go! There it was! “You are an amazement.” You will see the reality of how profound even the meaning of the word is as we journey through this story together.

Amazement...

A feeling of great surprise or wonder.

Me being me would mean I would sit with her, the word, Mangaliso. Me being me would mean I wouldn’t rush off to try and build something haphazardly. Me being me knew that she needed space and time to become. I am one who holds seriously to ancient practices. I have seen fad, fashion, and fancy come upon many an industry. I have watched them pedal their wares. I have watched them leave sellers and buyers exhausted, diminished, beaten up, and left by the road side.

That is not true about ancient practices. They don’t do such a thing. They undergird. They lay solid foundations. They have boys beating giants and other fun things.

I would sit with amazement. I would fall in love with Mangaliso. Me being me would hold true to that which I had allowed to be forged, into the depths of my being.

I loved that the word was about others. I had seen too much striving to celebrate a guru, be it pastor or yogi. I had seen too many gurus fall from grace. I had watched too many organizations suffer from the flights of fancy of man. I wanted something different. Amazement would be birthed. Amazement would grow. Upon my being, she would land. Upon my life, she would be formed.

The realities of her gifts, both cascading downward through ranks and populace, as well as creating space as a geyser. As a geyser sprinkling upward from the society, in its arrogance, would call common. No hierarchical patterning. Me being me, would mean that I would find the organic and orbital realities that held the dignity of all humanity within her arms.

Amazement would form out the construct for my eyes, ears, heart, and very being to hold onto the essence of myself. I would no longer squander away this dream, denying the passions of my heart. I would no longer abide by the lack of sight, of others. I would find ground to hold onto as me. I would find space to occupy and even more ground to take.

My paradigm requires hope and sight, as the litmus test for humanity’s amazement. True seeing, true living. As Living Mangaliso would emerge, as she would grow and become strong, so would I. As she found her feet, I would too. A deliberate and expansive celebration of the reality of the vast beauty, of all the human race. I would be granted amazement to champion. Amazement for all, all for amazement.

Amazement for the wounded and those who have known trauma. Amazement for kids, as it was for kids that I had even started upon this new journey. Amazement in the market place, house of worship, school room, living room, and bedroom. How could one reality fit so many places?

Knowing what I know, me being me, and standing, allowing, and believing would create a fluid reality of orbital dynamics. A construct that would be alive, vibrant, organic. We would allow for change. We would enjoy flexibility. We would celebrate, cultivate, and cherish the dignity of all. We would know what we know. We would be who we would be. We would stand, and stand tall.

Amazement...

She sets the world on fire. Not a shooting star, nor a flash forest flame. She becomes the one you can cook upon. She exists as the one who will lend its heat to all that are near and far.

Amazement...

For kids, classrooms, teachers, administrators, janitors, bus drivers, cafeteria help, and the board of education.

Amazement...

For the family, living room, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. Daily habits, yearly benchmarks and all the likes.

Amazement...

For the sick, marginalized, traumatized, outcast, and unwanted. For those that learn differently, those that have letters and labels and those who don’t.

Amazement...

For the business place, market place, board room, CEO, secretary, and mail room intern.

Amazement...

Yes! For all and in all places.

How?

Well, that’s the journey you are embarking upon. We promise one thing—it is not for the faint in heart.

We invite you into amazement. We invite you into Mangaliso. We invite you into life. We invite you to Living Mangaliso!

ENJOYING THE WORD, VAST!

How can one word, one concept, one component fit so very many vast and different realities?

Great question!

It is the lack of sight that limits. It is the emptiness of heart that sets restrictions.

What helps?

It helps when one can see the fifty-eight-year-old board member with the same eyes that one sees on a five-year-old. Not looking at another as a stepping stone to something else, appreciating the reality of humanity in the one in front of you. Having eyes to see that perhaps that five-year-old actually has more within to help you than that board member—that helps. Given many a set of circumstance, that statement is actually true.

Allowing paradigms and constructs of belief to touch slight adjustments here and there, one can change the course of a life. Allowing for the perhaps, brings entrance into the most amazing realities.

The ability to focus upon the one—the one moment, the right here, the right now—that is the key. It opens the most amazing of doors. There are so many in need. What can you do? Much misunderstanding—what is one to do? Many tasks to be completed—how can it all be accomplished?

The one, touching the one moment right in front of you and being present to that which it holds, that helps. When mountains of paperwork loom, hours of meeting strain, hundreds of kids in need all swirl, what is one to do?

The one, this moment, is what you have. What you do with it, well, is the better question. What do you do with this one moment, one person, one situation that is before you? Do you step into amazement? Do you step away from engagement? Do you shrink back in fear? Do you hesitate with remembrances of loss and pain? What do you need? What do you need to more fully engage with life in the moment—the one person, the one place, the one situation?

Finding those tools is what we are about! Giving you the fishing rod, teaching you to fish, is what we are about! You, you will be about amazement. You are living. You are breathing. You might as well be living amazing.

When one understands the immensity of simple yet ancient practices, it helps. When one sees the dignity of humanity in all, it helps. There are realities that, while complex, can be applied to the two-year-old and the one-hundred-two-year-old and all of us in between.

There is need within each one of us; as human beings, we hunger and thirst for belonging, acceptance, safety, love. It gets drowned out. The space gets occupied with very many different things. We wonder why we feel suffocated, alienated, relegated to the sidelines. We exhaust ourselves, our hearts, and our minds striving to find the answers as to why and what is missing.

I can’t tell you what is missing from your life. I can tell you what was missing from mine. It is in taking the reality of an approach that says this is the moment and this is the person that empowers me to sit joyfully across from a two-year-old. It is in taking that reality of an approach that empowers me to sit wisely across from a fifty- or sixty-year-old. The uniqueness of each story. The dignity of each one. Allowing that to grip my heart with a tenacity that would not let go, would change my heart and mind.

You will hear me say more times than you want, that the simplicity of the practices is that they are what they are. We want them to be more profound. We want them to be exclusive. We want something regal, complicated, worthy of our stature: methodology. We want an us and a them. The us and them profit immensely. We are ignorant. In our pride, we cut off our nose despite our face.

There was an ancient king who was given a message from one who spoke of mystery and times and other places. The king was suffering from an illness. Based on the words of one who spoke, there was a healer who had traveled to a foreign land. The mystery speaker wouldn’t, himself, step out to speak...