Enlightenment is a “gestalt shift” in which the World is viewed differently.
Nurturing The Song Within
Enlightenment comes from looking at the wilderness, the creation, with eyes of awe. It is a change in perspective. Wilderness is not an enemy to be conquered, but a gift to be loved. Art [Moffatt] understood enlightenment as a “gestalt shift” in which the World is viewed differently. . .
Gratitude came first in the form of appreciation for small favors, small favors which we now understood to be not so small: the gift of rain, the gift of the sun, the gift of the life of a caribou which had died for us. . . With the growing sense of gratitude came a growing sense of love: love for the creation, love for one another, and love for the grace of God which made us feel so peaceful.
George Grinnell from A Death on the Barrens.
In 1955, George Grinnell and four other young men embarked on a three-month canoe trip in Canada’s Barrens led by Art Moffatt, through territory that was then largely unmapped. They ran out of food, got caught in cold weather, and Moffatt died of hypothermia when the group inadvertently went over a waterfall. George’s book recounts their journey of transformation.
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