Recapture Your Sense of "Wonder"
Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher, essayist, and poet said it best, “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” I witnessed this last week as my grandkids crawled on their kitchen floor, mesmerized by the colors of the rainbow cast by a ray of sunlight refracted through a window.
They squealed with delight as they tried unsuccessfully to cover up the rainbow with their hands. They were confounded by how, try as they might, they could not “cover” the light. Instead, it covered their little hands. You could see their wheels turning, “Why does it do that? How does the light escape from under my hands?”
The wonder of childhood. It’s a beautiful thing to see. Do we lose our sense of wonder as we age? Does our education stifle our imagination? Do rules erode our sense of wonder? How do we get it back?
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
Socrates
I’m becoming more intentional about recapturing my sense of wonder. I’m doing it three ways: 1) being curious, 2) asking questions I never had time to ask before, and 3) s-l-o-w-i-n-g down the pace of my life. Just how am I doing this? By developing the art of noticing. One example. I’m noticing the birds in the woods behind my home—their songs, colors, habits, flight patterns. Ever notice the rollercoaster flight pattern of a goldfinch. Why does it do that? The male is a perky yellow bird. It has a black patch on the forehead, black wings with white bars, and turns dull olive yellow in the winter. Why does it do that?
But I digress. This blog isn’t about birds, it’s about recapturing your sense of wonder—and it starts by noticing, being curious, asking questions, and slowing down the pace of your life. Then, like me, you’ll notice your grandkids covering a rainbow with their hands. Someday they will realize that they couldn’t trap the light under their hands because they were covering a ray of light, not the source of the light. But that didn’t stop their joy of exploration. Maybe there’s a lesson in this for us.
So, no, I’m not asking you to become a birdwatcher. I’m asking you to become an observer—of everything around you, especially people. Then ask yourself questions you never took time to ask before. Honestly wonder WHY. Seems like a reasonable first step to recapture your sense of wonder, doesn’t it?
Socrates was on to something when he said, “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
And that is one true statement where we don’t have to wonder why.
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SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: Have you lost your sense of wonder? Why do you think this happened? What steps can you take as an adult to recapture your sense of wonder?
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Update on the release of THE DESERT BETWEEN US Novel
This week I finished the final proofread of the 346-page novel. It will be sent to the printer now. On March 5th, I will release a SEVEN-WEEK promotional campaign on Facebook called:
WRITING A NOVEL (at a glance)—ONE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY. I will catalogue my writing journey. I will very briefly discuss these seven topics:
March 5 Step One Why I Wrote The Desert Between Us
March 12 Step Two How and Where I Wrote TDBU
March 19 Step Three Selecting the Setting
March 26 Step Four Crafting the Characters
April 2 Step Five Developing the “Device”
April 9 Step Six Designing a Book Cover
April 16 Step Seven Why Did You Use a "Journal" in the Story?
April 23rd Book Launch Book Birthday of The Desert Between Us
Will you please follow me and SHARE these posts? Thank you.
I would appreciate your help getting the word out by sharing these posts. My desire is for this novel to bring help and hope to people who have suffered loss.
