“…a sense of wonder so indestructible it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strengths.”*
An indestructible sense of wonder! What a gift one gives when one supports the development of this inherent capacity in a young child! A lifelong inner antidote to boredom and disenchantment – maybe even depression, anxiety? Built-in mental health medicine! Why are we not shouting about this remedy from the rooftops?
We can wonder anytime about anything and everything we encounter both outside ourselves and within us. It is a state of inner openness where we allow for some space and time before the usual thinking mind jumps in with its analysis, labeling or categorizing. What we’ve perceived is taken in through our senses as novel, interesting, something we can be curious about and engage our imagination in exploring. Our brains light up with the possibility of innovative pathways. As soon as we have put a new experience or perception into a comfortable mental ‘file’ under some general category of something we’ve encountered in the past, we’ve gained some reassurance, but perhaps have lost a moment of seeing with new eyes, learning something new, stretching a bit into the mystery of the unknown.
*(Rachel Carson, “Help Your Child to Wonder” Woman’s Home Companion, July, 1956, p46)