Wonder

"Wheat Field With Crows"

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

Today I happened to come across several passages from a book I now want to read in its entirety. That book is Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life by Philip Simmons. Here is a sample:

This experience of living at the edge is not so extraordinary as it may sound. We have all had it. Perhaps you have sat with someone who was near death, and found yourself drawn into her inner radiance, into a place where pain and fear give way before a lucid awareness of the nearness of life’s source. Or perhaps you have listened to a friend who has just lost a loved one, and heard in his voice, through the grief and exhaustion, a wondrous and wondering connection to life’s deepest levels. Perhaps you have had it while giving birth or witnessing a birth, when we seem to rise out of our bodies and become winged things, hovering over all we love. Or you have had it in those ordinary moments, when watching a child butter a slice of bread or a crow settle in a field, and suddenly nothing else matters and you felt like removing your shoes and bowing down.

We all have within us this capacity for wonder, this ability to break the bonds of ordinary awareness and sense that though our lives are fleeting and transitory, we are part of something larger, eternal and unchanging.

Wonder. Just sit with the word for a little bit and see how it affects you. It's a beautiful word - a full, rich word. May we learn to cherish both the word and the experience.

UPDATE: You can learn more about Philip Simmons right here.