Wonder

I wonder what the day will hold…

I wonder how that beauty came to be…

I wonder what makes someone else do what they do…

I wonder why I feel so different…

I wonder how some of our fellow humans came to be enemies..

I wonder what comes next…

I wonder how to be better today…

I wonder how to deal with grief…

I wonder how to be kind…

I wonder how to hold on to the most authentic me…

I wonder if I am on my path…

I wonder why tortilla chips aren’t considered a health food…

I wonder how we can ignore the generosity of nature…

I wonder how we can pay nature back…

I wonder who I am to deserve all who I am surrounded by…

I wonder how we can be surrounded by so many iterations of perfection and not see that diversity is combined with unity to create that field of perfection…

You might get the idea.

I’m a wonderer.

And I think I’m just beginning to understand the beauty of wondering.

Wonder is an open door 

in a culture that has designed all manner of closed doors.

“I am right and you are wrong.” Is spray-painted on all those shut doors.

When doors are shut, there is no considering another viewpoint or even a wholly new idea.

“Please move on. I have stopped considering what might also be true and am only dealing in old thought patterns for the foreseeable future – thought patterns about life, people, government, religion, education, business, purpose…you get the idea. Done and done.”

The air is no longer moving in front of shut doors. There is no need. Air brings life and movement and the new.

Wonder is an open door.

No one is making you walk through it.

You can stand on the front step and feel the breeze, imagine a possibility, consider someone else’s viewpoint (even the shut door’s) and start an open conversation with your biggest self. There is no space for argument, but only space for consideration.

Wonder.

What do I know for sure? What is possible? Where did that belief I hold so dearly come from? Is it mine? Do I know its Truth, for sure? What would the outcome be if I considered something else may be true? What if I let go of the red-hot poles of angry thought and moved closer to the wonder – if only for this moment? 

Wonder is the unformed possibility of another way that holds love and kindness and maybe a sparkler or two.

Wonder is tapping us on the shoulder as we sit, scraped and spent, after playing tug-of-war to a dirty draw.

It’s asking us to look up from the rutted dirt we have memorized as our inevitable future and to turn our eyes to the idea that there is something more. 

Beauty. Purpose. Connectedness. Wisdom. Magic.

A beautiful 80-something former first grade teacher told me – with joy in her eyes – that she used to instruct her students that, when they were done with tests, they should put their pencils down — and dream.

Dream!

What a gift.

She was essentially handing their authentic selves back to them for a few minutes, in a system that only pretended to know who they were.and where they wanted to go.

She asked them to wonder about themselves and how they fit in the world.

When you have a few minutes, I invite you to put your pencils down and wander by the open door.

Dream.

See what you can remember about wonder.

We all knew it intimately as children.

It pointed us to our becoming.

The door is still open.

I’ll leave the light on for you.