Losing the Wonder

My son said to me the other night, “Dad, imagine if we could jump so high we jumped into space. We could then go see the moon and all the spaceships…”

It just struck me how wonderful and free a child’s mind is. It hasn’t been constrained by life’s ‘practical-ness’ and expectations.

I can imagine the responses I would get if I started a conversation about jumping to the moon or lying on the grass, arms spread wide imagining I could just lift off and start flying.  Perhaps my quirky sense how humour may let me get away with it but in general, people would look at me with dismay and would probably reject anything intelligent I may have to say after that.

I think that it is rather sad, that, as we grow older and “wiser”, we lose the wonder of a child. My mother has always asked that she be considered for organ donation at her time of graduation and in particular he would like her eyes to be given to a child so in this way she can see the world again with a child’s wonder. I ask, why can’t we do that right now?

For a moment, put aside the seriousness of life and the atrocities of man all over the world. Open your mind and see things as a child would. Imagine seeing ants for the first time and watching them go about their duties collecting food and rebuilding their nests. Just spend a moment watching the sun rise, or the spectacular colour changes during a sunset. And I don’t mean a casual glance, and a “Oh, how pretty!” type of moment. I mean, make a concerted effort to stop what it is that you are doing and spend the moment in wonder and appreciation for something glorious and wonderful. Study it, watch how quickly the sun appears over the horizon. Be amazed at how a massive ball of burning gases sustains life on our world. Watch the ants, and consider how oblivious they are that the sun is even there and what it does for them.  I guess, in some ways we have become more like the ants than we would like to admit. Our focus has been on ‘the doing’ of life and the experience of life is being lost in the process. What we have been given is truly a miracle and should be treated as such. Work, career, responsibility are things we have to deal with as part of the journey but don’t allow those to cause you to miss out on the experiences that make the journey worthwhile. Otherwise you may as well have been created as an ant, and you weren’t. You are a human being with a purpose and an important role to play in this world. You may or may not believe that, but my faith tells me it is true and I will keep on keeping-on trying to make an impact, even if it is one indeterminable step at a time.

As an engineer, I guess it is in my character to be curious about the why and how things work. So for me to find things that fill me with wonder are pretty easy. Things that ‘normal’ people find dull, really get me excited. As uninteresting as a door hinge is, it is a remarkable invention. I often find myself sitting wondering how things were invented. How did someone come up with the idea of a hinge?  If we take the time to be still and reflect, we all have things that fill us with wonder, it’s just we don’t make the time to enjoy moments of wonder.

Return to a child-like state and find your moments. Awaken the wonder in yourself and you may just find a new dream to build towards...