Awe is the emotion we experience when we encounter vast mysteries that we don’t understand.**
Dacher Keltner

Thus, awe’s ability to increase compassion and altruism appears to be one of the core reasons for its prominent place in our emotional repertoire.^
Jonah Paquette

I love questions,
And the adventures they open before me,
But I am appreciating more
the important part that
mystery
has to play within my life,
As Lao Tzu pens so well:
From wonder into wonder,
existence opens.*

Joseph Campbell would tell us that
this relates to the metaphysical function of myths,
A connecting with the ground of our being –
The other three functions being the
cosmological, sociological, and pedagogical;
Indeed, we might connect awe as
a benefit to each of these:
At the universe science is opening up to us,
In the exploration of human connectedness, and,
By inspiring and guiding us through the stages,
Or non-linearity, of our lives.

*Len Sweet’s Out of the Question … Into the Mystery;
**Dacher Keltner’s Awe;
^Jonah Paquette’s Awestruck.