Emergence of Wonder

“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”― E.B. White

“I embrace emerging experience.
I participate in discovery.
I am a butterfly.
I am not a butterfly collector.
I want the experience of the butterfly.”― William Stafford

Change your mind.
Think differently about things for a minute.
Give the benefit of the doubt.
Offer second and third chances.
Longer glances.
Put space between stimulus and response.
Respond thoughtfully rather than react habitually.
Assume good intentions and be proven wrong.
Put down rules, judgment, assumptions to invite connection, expansion.
Foster understanding.
Don’t have an opinion about everything.
Offer empathy, compassion and kindness.
Watch what grows.

Keep looking for the good.
Be awed by beauty.
Carried by hope.
Surprised by joy.
Held in peace.

“But hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand.”― Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life