“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
~Henry Miller
Is life feeling dull, boring, and ho-hum? Then I invite you to connect with everyday wonder. Wonder? What is that? And how do we find it in the midst of our routine daily lives?
It’s Not in Your Mind
Wonder is available to you right now, and always. It’s here in this very moment—not as a concept, but as your living reality. It’s the mixture of surprise and awe we feel when we encounter something amazing, unexpected, and new. We come alive to what’s actually here, not assuming anything or taking things for granted.
Here’s what’s important to know about wonder: it’s experienced outside the limited space of your mind. If your thoughts control you, what’s your experience? Ruminating about what you should have done, brooding about what isn’t going right, and worrying about the future.
If your attention is lost in your mind, the possibility of wonder seems a million miles away.
Every moment is always fresh and new. This moment, as it is right now, has never occurred before and never will again.
If this is so, then why do things feel familiar, routine, and stale? Where is the freshness, the wonder?
Present at the Heart of Everything
If things seem familiar to you, you’re experiencing them through the lens of your memories, not as they actually are.
Take a look at a common object, say a table. How do you know it’s a table? Your mind has learned that tables have certain characteristics that match the object you’re looking at.
What if, just for a moment, you could forget the word table and all your memories about tables? Now, take a look at it and see it directly as it is.
You’ll notice a completely different experience. You don’t know what it is or what it does. You’re curious and open. It comes alive to you!
Now, imagine forgetting all your memories, including frustrations, resentments, and worries. How would the world look to you then? What if you didn’t carry the past or future into your present moment experience?
Zen Buddhists speak of “beginner’s mind.” When we stop seeing the world through memory, we are always beginners, innocent and open, just like a child. We have a visceral experience of everything that is undeniably real. We are infinitely curious.
Problems and stresses dissolve, if only for a moment—they can’t exist without memory.
Wonder is pure experiencing without labeling, comparing, or analyzing. It’s closer and more available than you could ever imagine—at the heart of everything once you ignore your thoughts about it.
When you directly experience things, without the veil of thought, you feel them, sense them, and come to know their aliveness.
Experiencing Wonder
Life is right here, always available to be experienced as it is. In celebration of wonder, forget what you know, and try these:
- Eat a raisin. Place a raisin in your palm. Experience it through your senses, not your memories, then take a glorious bite.
- Close your eyes. Enter a familiar room, and close your eyes. Move around the room touching objects as you go. Be curious about what these things are actually like.
- Open your heart. Be with someone you know as if for the first time. Forget all your memories, and stand before them with nothing in the way.
As you can see, wonder is less than a nanosecond away. It turns the ordinary into something absolutely extraordinary. Let yourself know nothing…and reality sparkles with everyday wonder…
A version of this article was first published on the Huffington Post.
