Do we lose a sense of wonder with the world as we age? I’m not sure. I think I can go either way on that question depending on how you choose to look at life.
This week got me pondering: Tuesday, I went to the supermarket. It was cold, the wind blowing. A woman had her young son (probably a year-and-a-half old in my guesstimate) in the cart, getting ready to open the rear door to her SUV.
She hit the “open” button on her key fob, and you heard the telltale latch release and then the backdoor pop and start to rise. Suddenly, the child released a loud spontaneous mirthful howl, his eyes lighting up and pointing with his finger at the door raising itself seemingly by magic. He stared, his eyes sparkling. I couldn’t stop laughing.
“Wouldn’t it be great to have that sense of wonder with the world?,” I asked the mother. She smiled and nodded.
I headed off to my car, smiling myself, a look that didn’t leave my face for the five minute drive home. The child’s reaction got me headed down the “what if” path.
What if we all continued to view the world through the years of a young child as we passed through older stages of life? Would we be happier? Would the world be a better place? Would our creativity surge?
The cliché is to not become childish, but remain childlike. See the world through the lens of a youngster, staying fresh, learning, absorbing, being open to all those possibilities.
We wall off (most of us) as the years add up, going into our cocoons, hibernating, sticking to routines that have proven acceptable, foods we like, vacation sites we know we’ll enjoy, friends who are tried and true. All that is good.
It’s also good to open your childlike eyes and see what’s new, what you can explore that might activate your senses. Smells, sites, tastes are all critical to how we experience our daily existence. I think the case of this child “seeing” something unique/unusual in the rear door popping open was a case of him seeing something unexpected. Maybe he’d seen it before, we’ll never know. But, because it was odd or new and even if he remembered it, the action provided him with a charge that he belted out to the world.
We’re probably not going to do that as adults. But we can bring a more receptive mentality to our daily lives in how we perceive events, other humans, animals (there’s a huge category), countries, scenery, technology.
One of my all-time favorite scenes in a movie is when Will Ferrell as Buddy in the movie “Elf” guzzles a two-liter jug of Coca Cola, then burps for 23 seconds, his eyes lighting up, as he says, “DID YOU HEAR THAT?” Oh, yah, we did. Buddy’s wonder with the burp made the scene hysterical
I love the word “spellbound.” That’s the word I applied to the child in this story. Something ignited him. He was mesmerized, spellbound.
Keep chirping happily. Keep your mirth alive. Stay spellbound. See the humor. Pop that car door. Watch the magic.
This week got me pondering: Tuesday, I went to the supermarket. It was cold, the wind blowing. A woman had her young son (probably a year-and-a-half old in my guesstimate) in the cart, getting ready to open the rear door to her SUV.
She hit the “open” button on her key fob, and you heard the telltale latch release and then the backdoor pop and start to rise. Suddenly, the child released a loud spontaneous mirthful howl, his eyes lighting up and pointing with his finger at the door raising itself seemingly by magic. He stared, his eyes sparkling. I couldn’t stop laughing.
“Wouldn’t it be great to have that sense of wonder with the world?,” I asked the mother. She smiled and nodded.
I headed off to my car, smiling myself, a look that didn’t leave my face for the five minute drive home. The child’s reaction got me headed down the “what if” path.
What if we all continued to view the world through the years of a young child as we passed through older stages of life? Would we be happier? Would the world be a better place? Would our creativity surge?
The cliché is to not become childish, but remain childlike. See the world through the lens of a youngster, staying fresh, learning, absorbing, being open to all those possibilities.
We wall off (most of us) as the years add up, going into our cocoons, hibernating, sticking to routines that have proven acceptable, foods we like, vacation sites we know we’ll enjoy, friends who are tried and true. All that is good.
It’s also good to open your childlike eyes and see what’s new, what you can explore that might activate your senses. Smells, sites, tastes are all critical to how we experience our daily existence. I think the case of this child “seeing” something unique/unusual in the rear door popping open was a case of him seeing something unexpected. Maybe he’d seen it before, we’ll never know. But, because it was odd or new and even if he remembered it, the action provided him with a charge that he belted out to the world.
We’re probably not going to do that as adults. But we can bring a more receptive mentality to our daily lives in how we perceive events, other humans, animals (there’s a huge category), countries, scenery, technology.
One of my all-time favorite scenes in a movie is when Will Ferrell as Buddy in the movie “Elf” guzzles a two-liter jug of Coca Cola, then burps for 23 seconds, his eyes lighting up, as he says, “DID YOU HEAR THAT?” Oh, yah, we did. Buddy’s wonder with the burp made the scene hysterical
I love the word “spellbound.” That’s the word I applied to the child in this story. Something ignited him. He was mesmerized, spellbound.
Keep chirping happily. Keep your mirth alive. Stay spellbound. See the humor. Pop that car door. Watch the magic.