The Presence of Wonder

Hello hi bonjour salut!

(I've recently started learning French on Duolingo and now I just want to sneak in the five words I know anywhere I can OOPS)

Comment ça va?

How are you?

How was your week?

Il y a une vache dans la maison.

(I'm unsure why, but I now know how to say "there is a cow in the house")

This was my big moving week and we had an epic snowstorm in Chicago (for the entire 36 hours prior to and during the move yikes but don't worry it all turned out okay).

While most of my brain power was directed toward logistics, I was, as always, still on the lookout for thoughts/ideas/topicsforclass/delightstodiscover.

And I re-stumbled caross this quote from E.B. White:

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

I love it so.

From Charlotte's Web, which I also love so.

(J'adore Le Petit Monde de Charlotte!)

The very best children's art reminds us adults what life can be.

Wonderful.

Bittersweet.

Complex.

Connected.

Playful

Heartbreaking.

Heartwarming.

All of the above.

Time passes, friends are made and lost, life is a mess, and we need each other.

And we need wonder.

It's so easy to get caught in the logistics of life. The to-do list(s). The news. The tasks. The business. The decisions. The what-comes-next.

Then we miss the moments.

The beauty.

The freshly fallen snow as nature in its splendor.

(not just something in my way)

The spider's web as magnificent.

(not just something to brush out of the corners)

In Mary Oliver's essay Swoon, she tells of observing a spider day by day, through webs and meals and hatchlings, and rather than taking the story through to a 'moral' or making it a parable of some sort, she lets us know it's enough to simply observe. That the observation (and in her case, something like the pursuit of poetry), rather than having an end-game, can simply (not-so-simply) broaden our capacity for marvel.

Our capacity to be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.

This life is cyclical and our seasons will change.

Maybe being on the lookout means:

Not letting anxiety about the future take away the color of the present.

Not letting the tasks distract from the discoveries.

Let's spend this week, all of us, trying a little bit,

to notice,

to wonder,

to connect.

We're in it together.

"'You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing.'"

Thank you for being my friend.