To Admire

THE ANTIDOTE TO PESSIMISM is admiration. It sounds so simple, but the counterpoint to dwelling on what is missing is to affirm what is already here. To live a life of admiration is to name what is uplifting in the world and, through our love and attention, to discern how what matters works, so we can bring it to bear on all that life offers. Through admiration, we address what is missing the way light addresses dark.

-  MARK NEPO

In September and October, MARK NEPO will be teaching at the Sophia Institute in Charleston, SC, and at Harmony Hill, near Seattle, WA. See www.MarkNepo.com for details and www.live. marknepo.com for webinars.

The word admire came into common usage in the late sixteenth century, from the Latin admirari, meaning “to wonder at” or “to look at with wonder.” Just what does it mean to look at with wonder? What does it mean to admire someone or something? How does admiration work? What does it do to us to be admired? What does it do to us to be admiring?

The word wonder traces back to the Old English word wundor, which meant “marvelous thing, miracle, [or] object of astonishment.” When we admire someone or something, we lean into the power of life force we find there so completely that we are astonished at the existent nature of whatever is before us. For to affirm what is steadfast and foundational, no matter where we find it, enlivens us.

Admiration is a powerful resource because when we admire someone or something, we are, if open, introduced to where those qualities live in us. Then, it is our work to stay in conversation with those qualities, to discern how to water them and nurture them. It is our work to let those qualities of admiration grow from within us out into the world.

The word respect means “to look again.” And so, by looking at what we admire, again and again, we invoke respect as a way to understand what it is we admire and how we might grow those qualities in similar ways.