Microglass: The little gift that opened a world of reverence and wonder

My husband has a high-powered magnifying glass which he’s put on a string to wear around his neck. Mostly, he forgets about it, and it’s come out quite seldom in the past few years. When we were heading to Newfoundland last month, I asked him to make sure to bring it. For some reason I always forget the term “magnifying glass,” and as I’ve struggled to recall it, I’ve begun referring to it as the “microglass.” I was the one who mostly wore the microglass in Newfoundland, and on my birthday in July, my husband handed me a small gift wrapped in a Newfoundland brochure. It was the microglass.

So now it’s mine, and I have a few things to say about it. First, this was a great gift, and choosing great gifts for people who don’t need any more things, who try to live by the MOGO (most good, least harm) principle, who don’t want to contribute to waste, etc., can be tricky. How perfect that my husband passed on something already part of our household that I loved so much.

Second, the microglass has opened up a new world for me, not just the world one would expect, of tiny flower pistils and bits of dew on spider webs and lichen swelling with moisture, but the world of pausing, observing, reveling in the present, in beauty, in mystery. The microglass is my ticket to being still and experiencing wonder and awe, key ingredients to reverence and joy and the unfolding of wise choices.

What a gift this little microglass is.

Zoe Weil, President
Institute for Humane Education
http://humaneeducation.org