Why Enchantment Matters

Does anyone feel like the world has lost its magic? You know, the beauty and the wonder. Things are rough out there, and it impacts us.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last few years, specifically about how to get that wonder back in the midst of a world that will never be kind. We’re bombarded by negative stuff in our social media feeds and in the news. Add to that, some of us are just naturally pessimistic. So, what can we do?

I’d like to write a few posts on this subject because I need it, and maybe you do too. To start, here are a few definitions:

• dis·​en·​chant·​ed – “disappointed by someone or something previously respected or admired.”
• en·​chant·​ment – “a feeling of great pleasure or delight” or “the state of being under a spell.”

When we say we’ve become disenchanted, what we’re essentially saying is that the spell (of our object of attention) has worn off. Whether it’s with our church institutions, relationships, country, or anything really. There comes a time when “that thing” just doesn’t seem to be working for us anymore. Reality has set in. Things are hard; people are flawed. Our hearts grow cold, and we cease to hear the voice of the divine. So, how do we get that back, or get it at all?

Before I answer that, I’d like to share a story.

The Gift of Oneness on the Corner of Fourth and Walnut
Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, took a trip to Louisville, Kentucky, in March of 1958. Standing on a street corner, he stumbled into a new awareness:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world…

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…. I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. But this cannot be seen, only believed and understood by a peculiar gift…”

So, what is the gift? Notice what he said, he woke “from a dream of separateness…”

Do you know what the opposite of separateness is? It’s oneness. I’d like to propose today that oneness is the gift.

I experienced this recently when I met Brooke through a podcast interview forum page on Facebook. Brooke stepped away from a religion she didn’t align with and got into an abusive second marriage. The interview I did with her was about how she broke free. It’s amazing; if you’d like to hear it, click here.

But here’s the thing: though our religious backgrounds are different, and even the places we’ve landed in terms of what we believe about God—we are actually more similar than we are different. Follow me here—this, is the oneness I’m talking about.

But how? You ask.

Easy. We all come from flawed stories and share in the same pain. And we all are looking for solutions—oneness.

I’m so tired of the divisions:

*Republicans vs. Democrats
*The Government vs. “Woke”
*Men vs. Women
*Christians vs. Everyone Else
*Hetero-normative vs. the LGBTQ+ Crowd

The divisive list goes on.

I’m weary of it. Here’s why: we are more similar than we are different. The “dream of separateness” isn’t helping us.

It’s easy to feel disenchanted in a world that behaves this way. We long for that child-like sense of wonder, that “enchantment” that seems to have faded. Like the first time I caught a jar full of fireflies as a child, thinking their light would last forever. But in the morning, they were all dead. Ouch. Now that’s disenchantment. Reality had set in.

Merton’s experience of sudden connection in a crowded city, however, reveals something more true than the disenchantment with reality many of us feel. But what if we started to observe our feelings of separateness as the “dream” Merton said he woke from? From there, could we recognize our shared humanity, despite our differences?

So, how do we get into that sense of oneness, or “enchantment” I keep referring to?

Reclaiming Enchantment Through a New Attention
Iris Murdoch, a 20th-century novelist and philosopher, offers a path: “acquiring new objects of attention.” This involves consciously shifting our focus from self-centeredness to things of intrinsic value, like beauty, goodness, and shared humanity. By directing our attention to these commonalities, we wake ourselves from the dream of separateness. We begin to see beyond superficial divisions and rediscover what connects us all.

I was thinking about this recently while I was out walking and consumed in my own thoughts (self-centeredness). I came upon a tree that was hollowed out (pictured). I walked right past it, turned around, and came back to take this picture. I imagined what caused this hole to form and what animals might live there. Suddenly, I realized I’d acquired a new object of attention. Pulled from the isolation of my mind, I found myself back in the world. In that spot on the trail, I squatted down, looked in the hole, and began thinking of other cultures that still believe in trolls and fairies, and suddenly I realized… I’d re-entered the enchanted world.

Practically speaking, Jesus has some guidance for us here: “If anyone wants to be my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” In other words, to follow the enchanted one, we have to get out of our self-centeredness. We have to get out of our heads and into love, justice, beauty, and goodness. For some of us this sounds so squishy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not.

Iris Murdoch emphasized that “attention is a form of love.” What are you paying attention to? What are you loving?

Why This Matters
Friends, here’s why this matters: in a world broken with division and weighed down by pain, reclaiming our sense of wonder and connection isn’t just a feel-good idea—it’s an essential survival requirement. It’s about building bridges, finding joy, and fostering a more compassionate world, starting with how we choose to see each other and what we choose to love. We all need this which is why I want to take a few blogs to talk about exercises to create “oneness” with our fellow humans. I’m looking forward to it.