What happened to your sense of wonder?
There’s a great book by rachel carson, the environmentalist, called “A Sense of Wonder.” In it, she says, “A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.”
I’ve known for about 15 years that the march toward adulthood slowly beats the sense of wonder out of us. Prior to that I walked obediently along the beaten path, not questioning where it would lead me. I believed that I’d be happy at the next bend up ahead and when that didn’t make me happy, then it would be the next one. But can I tell you something? No matter how many bends i went around, I wasn’t happy. I became happy only when I took the path less traveled by. When I started to create my own route through life.
Being on my own path also restored my sense of wonder. I can’t wait to get out of bed in the morning and learn something new. Something I want to learn; I need to learn. That’s the problem with today’s generic life blueprint, it doesn’t take into account individual interests. How can we all want the same things in life? The real secret? We don’t. Making us into “want” clones deadens desire, deadens wonder.
How about you? Do you have your sense of wonder intact? If you do, how did you keep it or get it back?
Muse thx,
Giulietta
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Julie, you are so right! I re-gained my sense of wonder after my children were born and I started to see the world through their eyes. When my daughter was little, one day she asked me, “Mama, why doesn’t daddy like the beautiful yellow flowers?” The yellow flowers that she loved so much were the dandelions in my neighbors yard. As adults we are taught that these are weeds and you should put weed killer down to rid your lawn of them. It was at that point that I started to see the wonders of the world again – and every spring I had vases of dandleions in my kitchen that were picked for me by my children.
Hi Liz,
What a great story told through your daughter’s eyes of wonder. I love dandelions too, especially when they get to the fragile puff stage. Who decides what’s an ugly flower and what isn’t? Can’t we decide for ourselves?
Thx for stopping by! G.
I think curiosity is highly undervalued and many people let it fade as they age. I went into librarianship specifically because I wonder about everything. My job exposes me to just about everything, so I’m never worried about my curiosity vanishing.
My little boy is 20 months old and he is amazed by everything he sees. We were all there once. There’s no reason we can’t be there again.
Thanks for stopping by Josh! I’m a library junkie myself. Great places to keep your curiosity alive. Must be a fun job. It’s sad though that towns often choose to cut their funding first when times get tough. It’s one of the few free places left in the world! Giulietta
I agree with you; as we get older we get the sense of wonder practically beaten out of us by some wizened pragmatism. To maintain wonder and desire is often considered naive and lacking in common sense. And we’re too busy to take time out to wonder. As a result we can miss opportunities to understand ourselves better and choose our own path. If we take the path someone else chooses, we are less invested in that path because of our lack of control and less likely to maintain our curiosity about things.
Hi Sally,
Like your point about being too busy to wonder. What’s all this business about anyway? Why can’t we be busy with wonder?
Thanks!
G.
Like the other commenters, I too started to regain my sense of wonder after my children were born.
I try to keep it going by remembering to look up and look down and look to the side, not just stright ahead. I have been pleasantly surprised when out walking or running, to just take a turn because a colour of shape caught my eye.
Cheers
Peter
Peter, I love that you try to look in all the directions rather than just straight ahead. Horses wearing blinders are forced to only look straight ahead. It keeps them complacent. Thx! G.