WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD…
June 2022
Let me set the scene...
It was a week or so before Christmas last year, at a little after four o’clock in the morning, when I felt strangest sensation come over me. I sensed the bed had gotten lighter. I was still asleep, but I knew I felt it. I felt a slight panic within me.
The room was cold. This old house gets that way in the winter.
Without opening my eyes, I blindly reached over to touch Diana, just to know that she was there and to feel secure again. I was truly surprised to touch only her pillow. It too was cold. My panic quickly turned to fear.
I opened my eyes and looked around the bedroom. Meg was asleep on the floor, curled up on the oval rug in front of the fireplace, though the night’s fire was cold. Only the slightest glow of embers remained.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw Diana’s silhouette in the window. The blackness of the room behind her blended into the dark purple night sky in front of her.
“What are you doing?” I managed to ask. “Are you ok?”
“It is incredible Jimmy!” she remarked. “There are hundreds of them this morning.”
She was talking about the Geminid meteors that have been everywhere in our night skies for the last few days...
“Oh my goodness Jimmy!” she said again, with even more excitement. “Did you see that one? The tail was soooo long!”
I don’t know what brought about my next thought, but I found myself filled with sensations of great pride, immense gratitude and incredible happiness...
“Here is the most beautiful woman I have ever known,” I thought to myself. “Successful, accomplished, intelligent. So well grounded. Yet she still sees this world with a sense of awe and wonder...through the eyes of the little girl that lives within her and makes her presence known every day in dozens of ways. And I belong to her. How lucky can one guy get!”
If you want to witness a natural display of wonder, just watch a child looking at even the simplest of things in nature. Their whole world is experienced through eyes of wonder and excitement. They make no judgments as to why things are the way they are...they simply witness what is and marvel at it.
It is not until we get older, and become affected by what goes on in the world, that we begin to draw conclusions and form opinions and assumptions of why things are the way they are. A child is at their best when they are still in awe of life and view it through innocence, purity and curiosity.
The sad truth is that many of us lose our sense of wonder and excitement as we become adults. We need to know WHAT will happen. HOW it will happen. And WHEN it will happen...as if this will give us a sense of control over our lives.
We demand certainty of how things will work out with our relationships, with our jobs, with our finances and with life in general. Our need to know the outcome has taken such an important place in our lives...so much so that we are missing the magic of life. We are missing the beauty in the now. We are not comfortable with surprises and things that happen that we don't understand.
We do not allow the magic of life to just unfold.
Children on the other hand understand the magic of life...they see and feel it everywhere. Their sense of wonder is an innate quality...something they are born with. They simply navigate through their young lives, seeing the world with so much amazement.
What happens to us as we get older? Where does this sense of wonder go...our openness to what life will bring? What happens to being able to trust life to show up as it is meant to be? What is with this need to know rather than to just be?
Why can we no longer be open to what life is going to show us.
Rather than judging what is occurring or coming from a place of fear, how much different would life be if we were able to maintain that child-like sense of wonder? To simply witness things the way they are. To be open to what unfolds for us.
Well...I will tell you how different it would be!
Something very interesting would happen. We would open the door to our wiser self and that wiser self would be able to give us the answers we seek. We would remain curious and open. The most amazing things would be revealed to us, either consciously or subconsciously. We could take away lessons that impact how our life moves forward.
The fact is, life is happening FOR us, not TO us. Everything that has happened in our life and is happening to us right now, is serving us. It is making us delve deeper into our self.
Life is asking us to approach what is happening with curiosity and a sense of wonder rather than a "why me" attitude. The story doesn't matter. All that is important is what insights and lessons we gain about ourselves and life.
For good or bad, we have become a global village! We hear of tragedy and chaos every day from the far corners of the world. We are impacted by the pain, the suffering and the sadness other people are experiencing.
Yet miraculously, amongst the plethora of tragic stories, there are tales emerging of great generosity of spirit. Stories of forgiveness and people coming together in love and healing. Are you part of the generosity? A part of this forgiveness? Of this love and healing?
You can only be a part of it when you have the awareness and ability to see beyond the circumstances. You can only contribute to it when you possess the curiosity and sense of wonder, enough to ask yourself...
"What is life trying to reveal to me at this moment?
How can I be a better human being and open my heart?
How can I be of service to others?"
You don't have to wait until tragedy strikes to be of service to someone. You can do something at any time...just by living your life with a willingness to share your gifts with others. By being yourself and sharing what you have been given, you are sharing the wonder that you are.
Yes, you heard me right...
YOU are a wonder.
YOU are a unique piece of God.
So unique that you are one of kind. There is no one like you in the whole world. You are a treasure chest of amazing gifts and wonders, just waiting to be opened and revealed. When you are willing to see yourself this way, you are allowing life to unfold through you in wonderful ways.
It was Socrates that said...
"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."
To walk through life with a sense of wonder means to open up to a higher knowledge...one that is beyond the physical mind. Your tool to tap into this wisdom is your imagination. Your imagination is the conduit to your higher self...which is your true self, the one that knows the truth of who you are.
Imagine what it would be like to live the life of which you dream...a life of abundance, joy and love. I wish I could convince you this is not just a cliché. Not a meaningless platitude. Not just a string of feel-good words!
To begin is very simple. It costs you nothing! You simply have to activate your sense of wonder and imagination, of what your dreams coming true would...
FEEL like
LOOK like
SOUND like
TASTE like
SOUND like
This is not fiction. It is very possible. And do you know why?
Because YOU are the creator of your life. When YOU start to see the wonder of each moment, by being in the moment and appreciating life and feeling good about yourself, YOU start to align yourself with all the things that are similar in nature.
In that moment, you have opened up a portal of goodness for things to come your way. When you stand in gratitude and appreciation for the moment, you are in reality aligning yourself with all that is joyous, all that is pure, all that is loving and wonderful in the world.
Life will reflect back to you what you are emanating.
It will show up in your life.
You will be amazed at how solutions come to you for the problems with which you have been struggling. Resources, knowledge and people will show up at just the right time to support you.
This is not some fairy tale. This is the way in which life and the universe work.
Your part is to trust in the process, to take action on what you intuitively feel you should do and to believe wholeheartedly in the outcome. Approach life with your glass full...of wonder.
People like my Diana know this. She attracted me into her life just as much as I attracted her into mine. Though we were 5000 miles apart, separated by an ocean and culture, we were similar in nature. The Universe worked flawlessly!
If you are reading this today, I am challenging you to acknowledge the wonder that is YOU...to have a sense of wonder about life. To stop and appreciate the present moment. To offer a smile, a kind word or deed to someone you don’t even know.
Do this not to gain anything, but rather just to give of your wondrous self.
Go on, give yourself permission today to reclaim your sense of wonder, to take in a few deep breaths and stand in awe at the magnificence of life. Pay attention to the people you meet along the way. Many will have profound impacts upon you.
Marvel at the wonder of mother nature.
Meditate on the simple miracle of being alive.
It is indeed a wonderful world and there is nothing more wonderful about it than for you to discover that you are an integral part of it. To discover how wonderful you are!