Wonder

Yesterday, I’d been amidst the greenery all day – first, spending half the day helping at the Volunteers in Mission plant sale in the church basement, then digging holes in the yard to plant what I bought. (Yes, that’s a given for me. I may walk the mall and find nothing worth buying, but take me to a plant sale and watch out!)

Arriving at home, I found Shelley drawing this terrific chalk art on the driveway.

To give some perspective, those are dandelions on the right.

Shelley lives in an apartment on the other side of the block. Her mother lives out of state. She had this chalk and, as she said, I’m a mother, and she hoped I didn’t mind. Mind? This is wonderful, I assured her.

Isn't it wonderful?

Some days it’s easy to see the wonderful things around us – a yard sale with lots of stamping supplies if you love card-making. A youngster brings you a fist-full of flowers. Have you ever noticed how quickly ducks flap their wings? Some days, noticing wonder is really hard. Maybe there are too many things to accomplish in too little time or too many days before payday. 

But when we’re not overly stressed or when the sky is blue or when we’ve just had a great conversation with someone special to us, it can be easier to notice the wonder. Pause and savor it.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to create moments in your day to experience wonder.

• When you stop at the light – if you don’t already have a practice of saying a short prayer – maybe you’d like to take the chance to notice your breath, or a tree, or the pedestrians and just marvel.

• When you see someone on skates or a board or with a hoop or a bike, instead of grumbling about the uselessness of the enterprise or wishing they were somewhere else, notice their sense of balance, their dedication. Notice the beauty of the act.

• What do the leaves on the tree outside really look like today? What’s new in the neighbor’s garden or in the park? What is that amazingly weird fruit on display in the market? Each moment presents new wonders to those who would notice them.

Experiencing wonder doesn’t cost anything, yet when we practice it we reap rewards. All our – and the world’s – problems are still there, but now, the mundane becomes infused with meaning. Now our breathing is a bit more relaxed. We find that we have joy. We are thankful.

And life is good.