Finding the awe gate
Great art, great design, great business is forged from a place that knows what it is like to be on our knees. At this point, when everything is peeled away, who we are at core and why we want to build a business becomes crystalised.
We can be on our knees for many reasons.
Route #1. Life can beat us up so much that we end up on our knees in despair. Funny thing about this, though, is once we get to our knees…once we are so far down that there is nowhere further to go… we are then able to find some kind of peace that enables resurrection. Resurrection rarely comes before we have been humbled thoroughly and completely.
Route #2. We can be on our knees in gratitude. Usually, we do not get to this place until we have travelled route #1. Most people do not appreciate the wonders of life until they have known deep despair. Funny thing…the more we live in deep “on our knees” gratitude, the more life sends in the lovers, from amazing opportunities to beautiful supportive people, to magical synchronicities.
Route#3. We can be on our knees in awe. At life. Again, we usually do not get to this route unless we have been through #1. Once we have been thoroughly humbled by life, we find the ‘awe gate’ through poetry, art, music, a sunset, a rain shower… love. People.
While route #1 is massively painful, it is also the doorway to incredible gifts and beauty, if we have but eyes to see, and senses to know.
On our knees is a place to start again, this time with more wisdom, more grace, more love, more compassion, if we choose. But we usually do not discover this until we are there.
Written November 21st, 2013
Published June 3rd 2026. Photo taken June 3rd 2026
