Wondering

Wondering, I am wondering about wonder. Why don't we wonder more? I don't mean curiosity, I mean wondering, in the sense of being in awe. I have learned anew from my girlfriend Cecily about wonder. Cecily is amazed at the smallest details and she gets this look on her face, like in the picture above and says, "isn't that amazing, its beautiful." She is a person who has not lost her sense of wonder and I love that about her. When was the last time you stopped to really look at the flower that has caught your eye? When was the last time you saw the sunset? Have you ever sat with a child to watch ants? There is so much around us.

Over the past year I have been thinking that the greatest crime one person can do to another is steal there ability to be in a state of wonder. I think this because if you wonder then you realize there is something more, something bigger, something...else, from what you know or think. A child is a great example of the power of wonder. Just watch a child see a duck for the first time. They are so amazed at this creature.

I remember in University, when there was a student from Africa who had never seen snow before. I remember walking to my room one night when it started to snow. This guy was running around, screaming, going crazy. I thought what is with this guy. I asked if he was okay. He said that he had never seen snow before, it was amazing. He was so overcome with wonder that he was literally running, dancing, singing, at what he was seeing. That experience helped me renew my sense of wonder at something I had been raised with, snow. I remember stopping and thinking, "it is amazing that it snows."

I don't know, maybe this is all hokey, but I think that wonder helps us to deepen our appreciation of the world. Wonder helps to drive us. If we never wondered...what would we do? What would life be like? If we reached a point where nothing caught our attention, if we were just immune to wonder. How awful a state that would be. Hopeless. Well I would challenge you to go and wonder. To stop the next time the sun is shining through the woods with brilliant rays of light. Stop when you see a mass of people going in all sorts of directions, wonder about where they are all going, what there doing? or just sit at you kitchen table, look out a window and wonder what's out there?