Why do people lose their sense of wonder? An ability to be awed by life and to feel caught up by and swept along in a current of delicious excitement is present in childhood. It signifies a receptiveness to life, an ability or at least a willingness to perceive and to experience without judgment or conditioned response.
So does the process of or the formality of much of our education and of our trying to make life fit into our specifications and expectations of it, rob us of or at at the very least, stifle our ability to experience awe, joy and wonder in the world?
Think back to when a day or a simple afternoon spent outdoors in the sunshine or simply in the midst of an activity, could captivate your senses to the extent that you lost track of time, moved beyond any background anxiety or sadness, in other words, lifted you beyond any cares of the world and into a place of rightness, of belonging, in which it is simply okay for you to be - as you are - all that you are in that moment.
It would seem then, that an experience of awe and wonder is inextricably tied up with acceptance, of others of us and of ourselves with life. It is an unconditional experience of pure being.
We are like blocks of clay, being chiselled away at through the expectations of others, of ourselves and of trying to live a 'good life' and a 'fulfilling life'. This process that we undergo may be the very thing that is stifling our being, our creativity, our passion and ability to experience a truth or a fullness of life, not simply pleasure, but a deep and enriching, unconditional joy.
Each moment of our experience of life contains potential, which according to how we choose to witness or to perceive it, can either free us of our imaginary chains or will leave an imprint on our being that in some later moment we are destined to try and fill.
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