Today it snowed. Hard. It was NASTY if you had to be on the road.
Since I was stuck inside, I decided to do something a bit different.
I went outside. On my deck. Spun around in a few child-like circles. And caught a few snowflakes in my mouth. Just for a minute or so.
What struck me about this moment is that I was actually present for it. Part of the beauty of children is their innate awareness in the moment. They seem able to tune out the white noise of life in favor of being with what’s right in front of them. Everything is filled with wonder.
Wonder is an interesting word. Wonder is defined as: a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.
How AWESOME does that sound! In Embracing Uncertainty, Susan Jeffers encourages us to use an exercise which gets us out of our busy worries and into wonder.
It’s simple.
Every time you have a worry instead of catastrophizing the outcome-we can simply ‘wonder’ about said outcome instead. (i.e. I wonder if this cake will turn out right instead of What if my cake falls, I was supposed to drop it off this afternoon!).
There is a strange duality to wonder. The child-like kind where we are amazed by the unexpectedly beautiful. And the verb-like-aka Susan Jeffers form-where we are curious to know something.
Either way wonder has many lessons to teach us. Children are notoriously both curious about unknowns and surprised by everything unexpected life has to offer.
I wonder if we could approach life this way. Just for a moment. Set aside our worries and live again child-like.
Here's an experiment. Find one thing to approach child-like today. Dance for no reason. Really look at a butterfly. Or laugh super loudly.
Wonder is the gateway drug to appreciation and gratitude. I, for one, could use a bit more of it in my busy life.
The challenge is this: How will you find the wonder of your inner child today?