Wonder

Please read these two definitions of the word Wonder......

Wonder: to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; marvel

Wonder: a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable. 

Now think about the last time you experienced a feeling of wonder.......

What Google Images turns up for Child & Wonder.

On a child....it might look something like this....  

.......really....stop and close your eyes and try to remember that moment and how you felt inside. 

What caused it? How did it feel in your heart? In your mind? In your gut? Were others present? Or were you alone? 

And what did you do with the feeling? Did you pause to be IN IT? Or did it move you to SHARE IT? 

Okay......thank you, for indulging me on that exercise. You see, this evening I was overcome by wonder. Getting home from work just after 4 pm, I was determined to get outside and get some exercise. It was 24 degrees (Fahrenheit that is...which is about -4 Celsius) and snow began to rain down on me about halfway through the nearly 4 mile walk. I was a bit chilled with the wind in my face....but more than anything, I FELT WONDER. 

Wonder to feel so alive and so free. Yes...that is what I feel at this juncture in my life. Some call it a midlife crisis (that's a whole other post topic!), some call it crazy, some call it....oh, I don't even know what they are saying about me. (Insert eye roll and shoulder shrug here.)

But I want to tell you that I feel acutely alive....aware of all my senses, in tune with the world on a micro, and a macro, level. 

You see, tonight as I walked the sidewalks of Old Colorado City, listening to a workout mix on Pandora, I found myself wanting to throw my arms out to the side, looking to the sky and collecting snowflakes in my eyelashes, with a wide smile across my face.....just wondering at life and this moment. Feeling fully alive. And then I look at the people in the cars driving down the street.....and I thought....I must look strange to them. But you know.....none of them were looking at me. They were on their phones (mostly), or talking to the person beside them, or scolding the child in the backseat, or looking at the streetlight. 

Therein lies the part of the definition that stands out....."feeling of surprise." You see....Wonder has to shock us, move us, past the ordinary everyday stuff.....to see ourselves, our lives, in a new light. 

Tonight.....I wish you the experience of WONDER....it can be so magical. As I know. :)